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(THE CASTLE OF ZION. Illustrated. 
THE GARDEN OF EDEN. Illustrated. 
WHEN THE KING CAME, 

WILLIAM PENN. In Riverside Biographical Se- 
ries. With Photogravure Portrait. 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
Boston and New York 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 




CEDARS FOR THE BUILDING OF THE CASTLE 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 

^tortesJ ftom ti^e £)lti Cesjtament 

BY 

GEORGE HODGES 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1912 




COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY GEORGE HODGES 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Published October iqiz 



1-2.- 239CC> 



gCI.A327302 



TO 



CONTENTS 

I. The Castle of Zion • i 

II. The Runner and the Spear 6 

III. Under the Fifth Rib io 

IV. The Little Lame Prince 15 
V. The Ambassadors' Beards 20 

VI. In the Front of the Battle 24 

VII. The Wise Woman of Tekoa 28 

VIII. "I will be King!" says Absalom 33 

IX. "I will be King!" says Adonijah 39 

X. The Baby and the Sword 44 

XL The Queen of Sheba 47 

XII. Ten Torn Pieces 53 

XIII. The Prophet and the Lion 57 

XIV. The Sparing of Benhadad 62 
XV. A Handful of Meal 67 

XVI. The Fire and the Rain 70 

XVII. The Still, Small Voice 76 

XVIII. Naboth's Vineyard 80 

XIX. The Chariot of Fire 84 

XX. The Prophet and the Prophets 89 

« • 

Vll 



CONTENTS 



XXI. "My Head! My Head!" 95 

XXn. The Captain and the River 100 

^XXni. The Siege of Samaria 105 

XXIV. The Wild Ride of Jehu iio 

XXV. The Prince's Grandmother 115 

XXVI. The Shepherd and the City 119 

XXVII. The Prodigal Wife 125 

XXVIII. Whistling for the Bees 129 

XXIX. The God of the Land 134 

XXX. The Wolf and the Fold 137 

XXXI. The Burned Book 142 

XXXII. The Capture of the Castle 147 

XXXIII. Moving Pictures 152 

XXXIV. The Master of the Magicians 158 
XXXV. The Fiery Furnace 164 

XXXVI. Belshazzar's Feast 168 

XXXVII. The Den of Lions 172 

XXXVIII. The Hanging of Haman 177 

XXXIX. The Castle Wall 184 

XL. The Adventures of Jonah 190 

XLI. The Patience of Job 196 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Cedars for the building of the castle Frontispiece v 

After the draiving by Gusta^ve Dore in La Sainte BibUy TourSf 1866. 

Nathan reproves David 

The man who stoned the king 

Long live King Solomon! 

Gifts from the Queen of Sheba 

You shall be King over Israel 

The little lad lives again 

The desolated city 

Out of the captured castle 

Whom the king delighteth to honour 

In peril of attack 

Job's comforters 

After dranvings by Julius Schnorr <von CaroUfeld in Die Bibel in Bildem, 
Leipzig, i860. 



26^ 


34^' 


42^ 


48 -^ 


54 


98 • 


148 / 


152^ 


172 •^ 


186 ^ 


198 / 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 




T stood on one of the summits of a double 
hill. The hill lay on the land like two fin- 
gers of a clenched fist. East and south and 
west were deep valleys: on the north was a 
stout wall. Sometimes the castle was called 
Zion, which means the " Top of the Hill." Sometimes it 
was called Jerusalem, which means the "City of Peace." 
And this name it had because it seemed secure from all the 
ills of war. Armies had beaten against it for centuries, as 
the waves of the sea beat against a high rock. 

It was not only a castle, but a city. There people lived in 
their quiet houses, and carried on their business under the 
protection of the garrison; as they do to-day at Gibraltar 
in the shadow of the fort. And the commander of the castle 
was a king. 

One time there were found in Egypt, on a bank of the 
Nile, the ruins of an ancient city. In the midst of the city 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



stood a royal palace, and beside the palace stood a royal 
library: the palace and library of Tel el Amarna. In this 
library were found three hundred letters. They were 
written, as was the manner in those days, on bricks or 
tablets of clay, and so had endured through all the weather 
of more than three thousand years. Many of these letters 
were written to the king of Egypt by the king of Jerusalem. 
*'The Castle of Zion," he said, "is in peril. Wild people are 
coming across the Jordan from the deserts, and are threat- 
ening us on every side. Send reinforcements." 

Then years passed, and Abraham was returning one day 
from a victorious battle. A band of robbers had plundered 
Sodom, where Abraham's nephew Lot lived, and had car- 
ried away Lot and other people, and all the spoil on which 
they could lay their hands. Abraham had chased them, 
and rescued Lot and his friends out of their camp. On his 
return, the king of Jerusalem, named Melchizedek, came 
out to meet him, bringing bread and wine to refresh him. 

Then years passed, and years passed, and Joshua came 
into the land. He came out of the deserts and over the 
Jordan, like the people about whom the king of Jerusalem 
had written to the king of Egypt. There were great battles, 
and the king of Jerusalem of that day was one of the com- 
manders against Joshua. Instead of bringing bread and 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



wine, he brought swords and clubs. But Joshua was vic- 
torious. The five opposing kings fled, and hid themselves 
in a cave, and Joshua captured them. He had his captains 
put their feet on the necks of these royal prisoners. Then 
he took the kings and hanged them on five trees, the king 
of Jerusalem among them. But, even then, he did not take 
Jerusalem. The Castle of Zion stood frowning on its lofty 
rock, and nobody could come near it. 

Thus it stood through all the years while the Jews were 
conquering the country. Deborah and Gideon and Jeph- 
thah fought their splendid battles, but they did not take 
the fortress on the top of the hill. And Saul became king, 
and fought with the Amalekites and with the Philistines, 
and died at last in battle, but the Castle of Zion remained 
still in the hands of the ancient people of the land, the 
Jebusites, whose grandfathers and great-grandfathers had 
held it before them. 

At last came David. 

Now, David had about him a force of mighty men. They 
laughed at danger, and believed that difficulties were things 
to be overcome. They loved to swim across flooded rivers, 
and to meet lions in caves. They would rather fight than 
eat. Among these heroes were three of David's nephews. 
Their mother was his sister, and she had brought them up 

3 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



in such a way that they did not know how fear felt.. One 
day, David was fighting with a giant who was worse than 
Goliath, a vast and mighty man named Ish-bi-be-noth. 
And Ish-bi-be-noth had a huge spear in one hand, and a 
new sword in the other, fresh from the forge, and he made 
at David with such force that had he had but one more 
chance to strike, the head of David would have rolled upon 
the ground. But one of the nephews, Abishai, came to the 
rescue. Another nephew, Asahel, was as light of foot as 
a wild roe on the mountains; but he never ran away from 
danger. The third was Joab. 

David sent word to the garrison of the Castle of Zion, 
and called upon them to surrender. They laughed at him. 
They said, "Come and take our fortress, if you can. We 
keep no guard. The blind and the lame among us are enough 
to hold our walls against you." And they made up a com- 
pany of blind men to watch for the appearing of David 
and a company of lame men to bring the news of his ap- 
proach. Then they sat down to eat and drink. 

So David called his mighty men together. "Here," he 
said, "is an adventure to-day which shall have a rich re- 
ward. He who shall find a way into the Castle of Zion, and 
shall be the first to enter there, shall be the chief and cap- 
tain of you all. He shall be the man of my right hand.' 

4 



j> 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



This adventure Joab undertook. 

It was like the capture of Quebec, when Wolfe and his 
men climbed the narrow path out of the steep valley, and 
were found in the dawn of the morning on the Plains of 
Abraham. Up climbed Joab and his soldiers in the night 
along the watercourse, and surprised the garrison. The 
stout soldiers of the castle suddenly found the enemy upon 
them. Thus David won the ancient fortress. Joab became 
the captain of the army, and Jerusalem became the capital 
of the Jewish people. 



II 



THE RUNNER AND THE SPEAR 




UT of the battle in which King Saul was 
killed, one important man escaped alive. 
That was the general, Abner. Abner had sat 
on the king's right hand at the royal table, 
and had shared the king's tent in the camp. 
Now that the king was dead, it seemed right to Abner that 
the king's son should sit upon his throne. Accordingly, he 
gathered together so much of the army as was left after the 
battle, and declared that the king was Saul's son, Ishbosheth. 
But many of the people wished to have David for their 
king. 

So there was war between the tribes, the men of the north 
being for Saul's son, and the men of the south for David. 
The leader on the side of Ishbosheth was Abner: the leader 
on David's side was Joab. 

The two armies came at last so close together that they 
were parted only by a pond of water, the Pool of Gibeon. 
And they sat down, and looked at each other across the 
narrow water. Then Abner said to Joab, "Let us not set 

6 



THE RUNNER AND THE SPEAR 

the armies in array, and kill a thousand men in a needless 
battle. Let us have a tournament, and fight by champions. 
You choose twelve knights on your part, and we will choose 
twelve knights on our part, and they shall decide between 
us/' And to this, Joab agreed. 

So the lists were set, and the champions were chosen, 
and out came the knights in armor, twelve on each side; 
and every man had in his hand a shining sword. Then at 
the sound of a trumpet, on they rushed and met in the 
middle of the lists, while the two armies watched. And 
each man with his left hand seized his opponent by the 
hair, and with his right hand thrust his sword into his 
side. And they fell down together and not one of the 
twenty-four got up again. Thus neither side had the mas- 
tery of the other, and the armies had to fight. And in the 
battle, Abner and his men were beaten and began to run, 
and Joab's men ran after them. 

Now the best runner in the army of Joab was his brother, 
Asahel. On he ran as a wild deer runs across a plain. All his 
companions were soon left behind him; before him, down the 
road, was Abner. Paying no attention to any lesser person, 
and turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, straight 
he sped after the fleeing general. So Abner heard the sound 
of following feet, and looked behind him. 

7 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



"Is that you, Asahel?" he said. 

And Asahel answered, "It is I." 

Then Abner said, "Asahel, you have no armor. Seize 
some soldier, and take his spoil and arm yourself." 

But Asahel replied, "I am well enough armed to kill 
you, Abner." 

So on they ran, Asahel gaining on Abner. 

"Come," cried Abner to Asahel, "turn aside from pur- 
suing me. Why should I smite you to the ground? How, 
then, could I look your brother Joab in the face again?" 

But that made no difference. On ran Asahel, sword in 
hand, after the life of Abner. Then Abner took his long 
spear, and just as Asahel was about to strike him, he thrust 
it back and struck Asahel so that the spear went through 
his body. And down he fell, and died. Then came the great 
company of the pursuers, following behind, and there lay 
Asahel dead. And they cried out in bitter lamentation and 
pushed on, chasing Abner. 

At last, Abner and his men came to the top of a little 
hill, and there stood with their faces to their foes. And 
Abner, who had tried twice that day to avoid the shedding 
of blood, tried yet again. Abner called to Joab. "Shall the 
sword devour," he said, "forever? When will you call 
your people back from pursuing us, your brethren?" 

8 



THE RUNNER AND THE SPEAR 

And Joab said, "Abner, I had intended to chase you all 
night long, but because of your request I will make the 
pursuit to cease." 

So Joab blew a trumpet, and his men stood still, and the 
fight was over. 

Then Abner and his men walked all that night across the 
plain, and did not rest till they had put the river Jordan 
between them and their enemies. And Joab took up his 
brother Asahel, and buried him in the grave of their father, 
which was in Bethlehem. 



Ill 



UNDER THE FIFTH RIB 




VERY day, David and Joab grew stronger. 
More and more men enlisted under their 
banner to help them in their great fight for 
the throne. But Ishbosheth and Abner grew 
continually weaker. Then Abner and Ish- 
bosheth had a quarrel. 

One day, Ishbosheth said to Abner, "Why have you 
done thus and so?" 

And Abner answered in fierce anger, "Am I a dog's head 
that you pull me about by the ears and beat me? Am I not 
fighting your battles against David? Have I not been your 
friend, and your only strong support? But understand 
me now, I am done. From this hour, I fight no more. I 
will make David king." 

And Ishbosheth dared not answer him a word, for he was 
afraid of him. 

So Abner went over to confer with David, and a body- 
guard of twenty valiant men went with him. And Abner 
said, " Make a league of peace with me, and I will set you on 

lO 



UNDER THE FIFTH RIB 



the throne of Israel. I will forsake Ishbosheth, and bring 
you all my soldiers." 

And David said, "I will make a league of peace with you 
on one condition. Michal, my wife, Saul's daughter, is 
living in your court. She must be brought back to me." 

For it was the hand of the Princess Michal which David 
had won by his victory over Goliath ; and it was she who 
had helped David to escape from her faither Saul, letting 
him down out of a window. But since then many years had 
passed, and many things had happened. David had mar- 
ried again two or three times, according to the custom of the 
country, and Michal had been married also. But David 
wanted to be king, and he felt that the fact that he was the 
husband of Saul's daughter would make many people feel 
that it was right that he should be Saul's successor. 

Anyhow he demanded Michal; and Abner sent at once 
and fetched her, much against her will : and behind her came 
her husband, weeping, till Abner told him to go back. 

Then David made a league of peace with Abner, and he 
spread a feast for Abner and his twenty men. And when the 
feast was over, Abner said to David, "'Now I will arise and 
go, and will gather all Israel unto my lord, the king.' 

And David answered, "Go in peace.' 

And Abner took his leave, and went. 

II 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



Now Joab was not present at the feast of peace. He was 
off that day chasing a rich caravan to rob them of their 
goods, and when he and his men came back, shouting and 
singing, with their arms full of plunder, the supper was 
over and the guests were gone. But some of Joab's friends 
told him what had taken place. 

"Abner came," they said, "while you were gone, and 
feasted with the king, and is even now departing to his 
home in peace." 

So Joab went to David in great anger. ** What have you 
done?" he said. "I hear that Abner came, and that you 
received him as a friend, and feasted him, and let him go 
in peace. Do you not know that the man is our enemy? 
Could you not see that he came as a spy to examine your 
camp and your army? Who killed Asahel, my brother and 
your nephew? Have you forgotten that? Whose hands are 
red with the blood of Asahel? Peace? You should have 
taken his miserable head from off his shoulders." 

And David was silent, for he was almost as afraid of Joab 
as Ishbosheth was afraid of Abner. 

Then Joab sent messengers after Abner, and they found 
him resting by the way, sitting beside a well in the shadow 
of the trees. "David," they said, "wishes to speak with you 
again." And Abner turned back, thinking no evil. So he 

12 



UNDER THE FIFTH RIB 



came to the gate of the city, and there was Joab waiting. 
Even then Abner, in the honesty of his heart, suspected no 
danger." 

"Come here, Abner," said Joab, "I have a word to say 
to you." Then, when they were come into a quiet place, 
and the two commanders were alone together, suddenly 
Joab drew his sword and smote Abner under the fifth rib, 
and killed him. 

Now when Ishbosheth heard the evil tidings, — that 
General Abner had deserted to David, and that he had been 
put to death, — his hands fell to his sides as the hands of 
one who is faint and full of fear. He knew that this was the 
end of all his hopes. His soldiers began to leave their tents, 
and to make their way across the river to the camp of 
David. Even in the court, everybody was now considering 
how he might best save his own life, and advance his own 
fortunes. 

In the middle of a hot day, Ishbosheth, who had been 
awake all night, went to his room and lay down upon his bed 
to get a bit of sleep. An old woman sat outside to keep the 
door. She had a pile of wheat beside her, and she was sepa- 
rating the grain from the chaff to make bread for Ishbo- 
sheth's dinner; but in the heat of the drowsy day, she fell 
asleep. Then came two fierce men, and opened the un- 

13 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



guarded door, and when they came out they brought the 
head of Ishbosheth with them. 

The two men took Ishbosheth's head, and leaving the 
old woman still asleep, away they went as fast as they could 
go. All that night, they ran across the plain; in the morn- 
ing they forded the river, still with their dreadful burden 
in their hands; and they at last came to David. 

"Here," they cried, "is the head of your enemy Ish- 
bosheth." And they looked for a reward. 

But David's soul was filled with grief and anger. It was 
to him a bitter thing that his way to the throne should thus 
lie across the dead bodies of his nephew, Asahel, and his 
old friend, Abner, and his brother-in-law, the Prince Ish- 
bosheth. So the reward of the murderers was given them 
on the edge of a sharp sword. 

But the war was ended, and David was the king of all the 
men of Israel. 



IV 



THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE 




T was the nurse's fault that the prince was 
lame. One day his grandfather, King Saul, 
and his father, Jonathan, were away in 
battle. They were fighting the Philistines 
^ at Mount Gilboa. Little Mephibosheth, 
five years old, was at home playing with his toys as happily 
as if the dreadful game of war had never been invented ; 
and the nurse was taking care of him. Suddenly appeared 
a messenger out of the battle, running and weeping as he 
ran, with his clothes torn and dust upon his head. 

"The Philistines have won the day!" he cried. "Saul is 
dead, Jonathan is dead! All is lost. Flee, flee for your 
lives!" 

The nurse picked up Mephibosheth, and set him on her 
shoulder, and ran to save his life and hers. And in the 
hurry and confusion, scared so that she could scarcely see, 
she stumbled and fell. Of course, the little boy fell with her; 
and in the fall he broke his ankles. There was no doctor 
there to set the broken bones, and the result was that he 

15 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



never walked again. He was carried safely out of the reach 
of the Philistines, but he was lame for life. There he was, 
then, his mother dead, his father slain in battle, his home 
destroyed, and he himself a little crippled child. 

Mephibosheth was taken away across the Jordan to 
Lo-debar, among the mountains of Gilead, where a good 
man named Machir had a farm. So the prince grew up on 
the farm. Machir gave him a home, and he had Machir's 
sunburned sons for brothers. He became acquainted with 
sheep and cows, and watched the men as they gathered the 
harvests of wheat and barley, and the women as they made 
bread and cheese and butter, and the bees as they filled 
their hives with honey. But he could handle neither scythe 
nor flail. He could only sit still and shell the beans, and tend 
the churn, and keep the cakes from burning, like a girl. 
By and by, he learned to ride, from place to place about the 
farm, upon an ass's back, and he could drive the cows to 
pasture. But he was very unhappy. ^' How miserable I am," 
he said, "with my lame feet ; how useless, good for nothing! " 

Sometimes he rode as far as Mahanaim, where his uncle, 
Ishbosheth, was trying hard to be king in the place of Saul. 
Then he wished that he might be a soldier, and fight for the 
fortunes of his royal house. He remembered how his father 
had named him Meribbaal, meaning the " Hero of the Lord," 

i6 



THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE 

and had hoped that he would grow up to be as strong and 
courageous as himself. Then he looked at his feet. If any- 
body could have told him that his name would be written 
in history Mephibosheth, meaning " He-who-brings-shame/' 
he would have said, **Yes, that is a more fitting name for 
me." 

This desire to be a soldier was very great in the days when 
Ishbosheth's army was growing weaker and David's army 
was growing ever stronger. But at last a messenger came in 
haste and fear from the court at Mahanaim, and brought 
the dreadful news that Ishbosheth had been murdered in his 
bed, and that all the glory of the family of Saul was ended. 
That was a bitter time for the little lame prince, for he had 
hoped to leave the farm some day, and be a prince, indeed, 
and live in a palace. And not only was this expectation 
brought to naught, but in the death and ruin of his uncle, 
Ishbosheth, all of the little prince's property was lost. So 
he was not only lame but poor. 

Now, when David became king, one of the first things 
which he thought of was an old promise. For one day, 
years before, he had been saved out of a great danger by 
his friend, Jonathan. David and Jonathan were such good 
friends that their affection has always been remembered. 
David said that there was nobody in the world whom he 

17 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



loved as he did Jonathan. But Jonathan's father, Saul, 
was trying to kill David. Jonathan was protecting him. 
So they met in a field as David was escaping from the court, 
and Jonathan said, "David, I am a prince and you are an 
outlaw. I am rich and you are poor. But I look ahead into 
the future and see that all this shall be changed. You will 
be a great man when I and my father's house shall be 
brought to the ground. Promise me rlow, for the sake of our 
love, that when this shall come to pass you will be a friend 
to my sons, as I have been a friend to you." And David 
lifted up his hand, and promised. And Jonathan said, 
"Promise me again, so that you may never forget it." And 
he promised again. 

And now David was the king of all the land, and the 
house of Saul had come to ruin. So David said, " Is there 
any left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness 
for the sake of Jonathan? " 

And somebody remembered the lame prince. And one 
said, " There is a son of Jonathan yet living, lame in both 
his feet." 

And David said, "Go bring him here to me." 

So they went to Lo-debar, to Machir's farm, and brought 
Mephibosheth. And the little prince came trembling. He 
remembered how his uncle's head had been cut off, and his 

i8 



THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE 

own head felt unsteady on his shoulders. He was carried 
in where David was, and he fell upon his knees before him 
and touched his forehead to the ground, and said, "Be- 
hold thy servant." 

And David said, "Fear not, for I will surely show you 
kindness for your father's sake. All the royal lands will I 
restore to you, and you shall be my guest here all the days 
of your life." 

And the prince said, "What is thy servant, that thou 
shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?" 

And David raised him up, and kissed him, and he became 
as one of the king's sons. Thus, at last, the dreams of the 
little lame prince came true. He left the farm, and lived in 
the palace, and every day dined with the king. 



THE AMBASSADORS' BEARDS 




HERE was a new king on the throne of 
Ammon. The old king had come to the end 
of his long life, and his son reigned in his 
stead. And since the land of Ammon was 
near to the land of Israel, just across the 
river, it seemed to David that it would be polite and plea- 
sant to condole with the new king concerning the death of 
his father, and to congratulate him that he had come to 
his father's throne. "We are both beginning the difficult 
business of being a king," he wished to say; ''let us be 
friends." 

So David chose a company of grave ambassadors, old 
men with long gray beards, and away they went upon this 
gracious errand to Rabbah, the royal city of the Ammonites. 
Now the Ammonites and the Israelites, though they were 
neighbors and even cousins, had long been enemies. Once 
they had fought in the days of Jephthah; the time when 
Jephthah vowed to sacrifice whatever came first to meet 
him if he returned victorious, and was met by his own 

20 



THE AMBASSADORS' BEARDS 

daughter. Again they had fought in the days of Saul, at the 
time of the battle of the Right Eyes. So when the princes 
of the king of Ammon saw the ambassadors approaching, 
they warned the king. 

"Put no trust," they said, "in David. He has not sent 
these messengers to honor the memory of your father, nor 
to make an honest league of peace with you. He has sent 
them to spy out the weak places in our walls, and to count 
the number of our soldiers, that he may send an army to 
destroy us." 

And this warning the king heeded. He took the ambas- 
sadors and dealt very roughly with them. This is what he 
did. He shaved off half their beards, leaving each man with 
the right side of his face bearded, and the left side bare; and 
he cut off their long robes above their knees; and he and 
his princes stood and laughed at them. 

Then he sent them home. And the ambassadors travelled 
by night, because they were ashamed to be seen. They 
might, indeed, have shaved the half of their beards that was 
left, but in those days all men wore beards. A man with a 
smooth face would have looked as queer to his neighbors as if 
he had dressed himself in the clothes of a child. All the boys 
would have called him names in the street. 

At last, the ambassadors came to Jericho, and sent to 

21 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



David to tell him what had happened. " The Ammonites 
laughed at us," they said, "till the tears ran down their 
cheeks." 

" I will make the tears run down their cheeks," said David . 
So he prepared for the War of the Ambassadors' Beards. 

Now when the Ammonites realized what they had done, 
they were sore afraid. They remembered what David had 
done already to their neighbors, the Moabites. For David 
had fought with the Moabites and conquered them, and 
he had made the soldiers lie upon the ground in three long 
lines ; one line he had spared, and the other two he had 
put to death. 

So the Ammonites sent to the Syrians, saying, "We are in 
great trouble. David is coming after us. Come now and 
help us, and we will give you gold and silver." 

Thus when Joab brought the army of Israel, and at- 
tacked the Ammonites beside their city gate, the Syrians 
rushed up through the open country from behind, and at- 
tacked Joab. There was Joab between two enemies, in 
the front and in the rear. 

Then Joab divided his army into two parts. One part he 
himself commanded : the other he put in charge of Abishai, 
his brother. "Abishai," he said, "you encounter the Am- 
monites; I will deal with the Syrians." And he addressed 

22 



THE AMBASSADORS' BEARDS 

the soldiers. "Be of good courage," he said, "and let us 
play the men for our people, and may the Lord give the 
victory to the better side!" 

And Joab fell upon the Syrians, so that they fled into the 
country ; and Abishai fell upon the Ammonites, so that they 
fled into the city. 

That was the beginning of a war which continued till 
the army of Israel broke at last into the city of Ammon. 
And David came to take possession. And in the temple 
of the Ammonites he found a mighty idol which they called 
Milcom; and on Milcom's head was a heavy crown of pure 
gold, having in the midst a precious stone which shone like 
a star. This David took, and wore the jewel on his forehead. 

As for the Ammonites, they became David's servants. 
He made them work for him, some with saws and picks 
and axes of iron, and some at making brick. Thus the 
kingdom of David began to be a strong nation. Never did 
their ambassadors come back from any other court with 
shaven beards. 



VI 




IN THE FRONT OF THE BATTLE 

NE time, in the midst of the War of the 
Ambassadors' Beards, the Ammonites came 
boldly into the open fields before the gate 
of the city and attacked the besiegers. 
And Joab set his army in array against 
them. And in the foremost rank, in the front of the 
battle, he placed a stout soldier named Uriah the Hittite. 

So they fell to fighting very furiously, and the Ammonites 
retreated, and the men of Israel pursued them even to the 
city gate. But on the top of the gate were archers, and they 
shot their arrows and drove their enemies back. The arrows 
flew into the faces of the Israelites like hail driven by the 
wind. In this encounter, Uriah the Hittite was killed. 

Then Joab sent a messenger to Jerusalem to David, to 
tell him about the progress of the siege. Joab said to the 
messenger, "When the king hears how we were driven 
back with loss of life, he will be very angry. He will say, 
* Why did you go so near the city? Did you not know that 
they would shoot from the wall? Who smote Abimelech, 

24 



IN THE FRONT OF THE BATTLE 

the son of Jerubbaal? Did not a woman cast a piece of mill- 
stone upon him from the wall of Thebez so that he died? 
Why did you go so near the wall ? ' Then you are to look the 
king very steadily in the face and say, 'Thy servant, Uriah 
the Hittite, is dead also/" 

So the messenger came to the king, and told him the bad 
news of the battle; and David was quite as angry as Joab 
had expected. 

"Why did you go so near thewall?" he cried. "Youshould 
have known that they would shoot upon you from the gate. 
You should have had more sense than to get within the 
range of the arrows of the archers. Go back now to Joab, 
and tell him from me — " 

But here the messenger added a word more. Looking the 
king steadily in the face, he said, "And thy servant, Uriah 
the Hittite, is dead also." 

Instantly, the king's manner changed. "Go now," he 
said, "and say to Joab, 'Let not this defeat distress you. The 
sword devours one as well as another. Make your attack 
stronger till you overcome the city. ' Do not be discouraged.' " 

For, the day before the battle, Uriah the Hittite had 
carried a letter from David to Joab. And in the letter, 
which Uriah could not read, the king said to the general, 
"Set the bearer of this letter in the forefront of the hottest 

25 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



battle, and when you are attacked draw back and leave 
him, that he may be smitten and die." Joab had obeyed 
the order of the king, and Uriah had been slain in battle 
according to the king's command. 

The reason for the killing of Uriah was this. Uriah's wife, 
Bathsheba, was very beautiful, and one day, while Uriah 
was in the land of Ammon fighting for King David, the king 
saw Bathsheba, and she pleased him much. He determined 
to add her to the number of his wives. But to do this, he 
must somehow get rid of her husband. Thus he sent Uriah 
to Joab with the fatal letter. 

Now every day the king sat upon his throne of state to 
hear the petitions of his people, and to give the judgments 
of justice. And the prophet, Nathan, came, and said to 
David, "'What shall be done in such a case as this? There 
were two men in one city, the one rich, and the other poor. 
The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds. But 
the poor man had nothing save one little ewe lamb which 
he had bought and nourished up; and it grew up together 
with him and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, 
and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was 
unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the 
rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his 
own herd to set before the wayfaring man that was come 

26 



IN THE FRONT OF THE BATTLE 



unto him; but he took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it 
for the man that was come unto him." 

Then was David very angry, and he said to the pro- 
phet, "Nathan, the doer of this mean thing shall surely die." 

And Nathan said to David, "Thou art the man!" 

"Hear," said Nathan, " the word of the Lord God against 
you, David. Thus saith the Lord, *I have made you king 
over Israel. I have enriched you with great riches. I have 
given you all manner of blessings, and have denied you 
nothing. And you have done this thing! You have done 
this shameful thing. You have broken my commandments. 
You have committed adultery and murder. You have 
killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his 
wife to be your wife.'" 

Then came David down from his high throne in shame 
and sorrow. "I have sinned against the Lord," he said. 



VII 



THE WISE WOMAN OF TEKOA 




HEY were shearing sheep on the farm of Ab- 
salom, one of the sons of David. And there 
was to be a feast for the shearers; and Ab- 
salom had invited the king his father, and 
the princes his brothers. But David said, 
"No, my son, let us not all go; there are too many of us, we 
should be a burden to you." However, when Absalom urged 
him, he let the princes go, though he himself remained at 
home. 

In the middle of the afternoon, as David was busy in 
the Castle of Zion, there came hurrying up along the road 
by which the princes went a frightened and excited messen- 
ger. "Tidings!" he cried. "Absalom has slain all of the 
king's sons, so that not one of them is left!" And the king 
arose in grief and horror, and all who stood by were amazed 
and fearful. 

But one said, "Not so, my lord. If anybody is killed, it 
is your son Amnon only. Absalom and Amnon have long 
been bitter enemies, as you well know, O king. Now, there- 

28 



THE WISE WOMAN OF TEKOA 

fore, let not my lord the king take this thing to heart, to 
think that all of the king's sons are dead ; for Amnon only 
is dead." 

And so it was. The watchman by the gate looked out, and 
behold there were many people coming in great confusion 
down the long hill on the Beth-horon road. And the watch- 
man told the king. "I have seen people coming," he said, 
"hurrying along the Beth-horon road by the side of the 
hill." 

And one said, "The king's sons are coming, as I told 
you." 

Hardly had he ceased speaking when the king's sons 
appeared in sight, every man on his mule, hastening as if 
an enemy were in hot pursuit, and weeping as they came. 
Absalom was not among them, — nor Amnon. As for Ab- 
salom he was fleeing for his life to the wild plains across the 
Jordan, to the home of his mother's father, at Geshur. 

So Absalom stayed at his grandfather's for three years, 
and did not dare to come home on account of his father's 
great displeasure. He was afraid that his father would have 
him put to death for the murder of his brother. He said, in- 
deed, to himself, "I took my brother's life on account of a 
great wrong which he did. I was the servant of justice, and 
what I did was right." But he knew that his father did not 

29 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



look at it that way. So the months passed, and the months 
passed, and Absalom had a great longing to go home. David, 
too, though he said not a word, had a great longing for 
Absalom, for he loved him more than all his sons. All this 
was known to Joab. 

Then Joab called to him a Wise Woman of Tekoa, who 
knew a great deal about the world in which she lived, and 
had some knowledge, people said, of the world unseen and 
future. "Go to the king," said Joab to the Wise Woman, 
"and say to him as I bid you, thus and so." 

So David sat on his high throne to hear the petitions of 
his people, and to give the judgments of justice, and there 
came to him a woman in deep mourning, crying, "Help, 
Oking!" 

The king said to her, "What is wrong with you, my 
daughter?" 

She said, "My lord, my husband is dead, and I am left 
a widow. And I had two sons ; and one day, when they were 
alone together in the field, they had a dispute and fell to 
fighting, and nobody was near to part them, and the one 
smote the other and slew him. And now, my lord, the whole 
family is risen up against me, crying, 'Deliver to us him 
that smote his brother, that we may punish him with death. 
We must have his life for the life of the brother whom he 



30 



THE WISE WOMAN OF TEKOA 

killed/ But, O king, he is my only son; he is all that I have 
left!" 

The king said to the woman, *'Go home, and I will think 
about the matter, and see what I can do." 

But the woman cried, "O king, I know that by the law 
my son should die; but break the law, and let the blame 
of the broken law be mine. The guilt be on me and on 
my father's house, and the king and his throne be inno- 
cent." 

And the king said, "Nobody shall harm your son. I will 
command the avenger of blood not to touch a hair of his 
head." 

But the woman continued kneeling before the king. "My 
lord, O king," she said, "my trouble is your trouble. You, 
O king, are the avenger of blood, and the son who has slain 
his brother is your own son Absalom. We must all die, and 
the dead cannot be restored to life, even as water which is 
spilt on the ground cannot be gathered up. But he who is 
banished may be brought back. Amnon is dead: nothing 
that you may do can help him. But Absalom lives. You 
are willing to pardon the son of your maidservant, pardon 
also your own son, the son of all your people." 

And David said to the woman, "Answer me one ques- 
tion." 

31 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



And the woman said, "Let my lord the king ask what he 
will." 

Then David said, "Was it not Joab who sent you here? 
Was not his hand with you in all this?" 

And the woman answered, "My lord the king is as wise as 
an angel of God. He knows all things that are in the earth. 
I cannot turn to the right hand or to the left from all that 
my lord the king has spoken. It was indeed Joab who put 
all these words in my mouth." 

And the king said to Joab, "See now, I will do as you re- 
quest. Go, therefore, and bring the young man Absalom 
back." 



VIII 



•*I WILL BE KING!" SAYS ABSALOM 




HEN Absalom came back, he found that he 
had lost his birthright. He was now the 
eldest son, after the death of Amnon; he 
was the crown prince. In the natural order, 
he should be king after his father. But he 
saw that David intended to make Solomon, the son of 
Bathsheba, his successor. Absalom determined to prevent 
It. 

The first thing which Absalom did was to make as many 
friends as he could. These he found among his father's 
enemies. For some men hated David because, when they 
came with their unjust complaints, he decided against them. 
*'0 that I were judge in the land," said Absalom; "then 
you should have justice." And some hated David because 
they had been on the side of the house of Saul in the war 
for the crown, and in the defeat had lost their places and 
their lands. And some were reckless men who were glad of 
any change. 
Then, when all was ready, Absalom sent out men with 

33 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



trumpets, and they blew their trumpets and shouted, '^Ab- 
salom is king!" And many foolish people shouted after 
them, ''Absalom is king!" And presently the shouts were 
so loud, and the rebellion so strong, and the danger so great, 
and the loyalty of the court so uncertain, that David fled 
for his life. Away he went, out of the Castle of Zion, and 
over the Mount of Olives, and across the Jordan, into the 
wilderness. 

Now, on the way between the mountain and the river, 
there lived a man named Shimei. He was of the family of 
Benjamin, and had sided with the house of Saul, and when 
the fighting for the crown had ended with the murder of 
Ishbosheth, he found himself disappointed and disgraced 
and poor. Indeed, he counted himself fortunate to have so 
much as his life left to him. Many of his friends had not 
fared even so well as that. So Shimei hated David, on ac- 
count of these things, with a bitter hatred. 

When the rebellion of the crown prince came to the ears 
of Shimei, he welcomed it with all his heart. When the 
trumpets sounded, and men cried "Absalom is king!" no- 
body shouted louder than Shimei. And now his old enemy, 
cast out and fleeing for his life, was on the road where he 
must pass by Shimei's house. And Shimei was waiting for 
him. 

34 



*a WILL BE KING!'' SAYS ABSALOM 



So the king and his companions came in sight, weary and 
sad. The road lay along a valley, and Shimei stood on the 
side of the hill, with his hands full of stones. And he stoned 
David. And as he stoned the king, he cursed him. "O 
you scoundrel! O you bloody man! "he cried. "Begone, 
begone! The Lord has brought upon you all the blood of 
the house of Saul, whose throne you stole, and in whose 
stead you reigned. The Lord has given the kingdom into 
the hands of Absalom. You are getting your deserts, O you 
man of blood!" 

Abishai said to the king, "Why should this dead dog 
curse my lord the king? Let me go over now, and take off 
his head." 

But David said, "See, my own son seeks my life; how 
much more this man who has good cause to be my enemy. 
Let him curse on. Perhaps the Lord will look on my afflic- 
tion, and will change his curses into blessings." 

So David and his men went on their way, and Shimei 
followed, cursing as he went, and throwing stones and dirt. 

Now there were two young men in the Castle of Zion 
named Ahimaaz and Jonathan. They were the sons of the 
priests who were the friends of David. They waited in 
Jerusalem till they found out what Absalom intended to do, 
and when they knew they ran to tell the king. But a lad saw 

35 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



them running and told Absalom, and he sent men to catch 
them. And Ahimaaz and Jonathan, finding that they were 
followed, came to the house of a man who had a well in 
his yard; and the man said, "Climb down into my well." 
And the man's wife spread a covering over the mouth of the 
well, and scattered corn upon it. 

Then came the pursuers in hot haste, crying, "Where are 
the men who came this way?" 

And the woman said, "They are gone over the brook of 
water." But all the water was in the woman's well! So the 
pursuers hurried on, and Ahimaaz and Jonathan^ climbed 
out, and went their way to David. 

"Absalom," they said, "is waiting to gather his forces 
together. Then he is coming out to battle." 

So David had time to assemble soldiers on his side. And 
when Absalom came, Joab and Abishai were in command 
of David's army, and went out to meet him. 

Now, as the army went out to battle, David stood by the 
gate of Mahanaim and reviewed the troops. And he 
charged Joab and Abishai, saying, "Deal very gently, for 
my sake, with the young man Absalom." So they fell to 
fighting, and the men of Absalom were defeated ; and Ab- 
salom fled with his men. And in his flight, he rode into a 
thick forest, and his mule ran under the low branches of a 

36 



**I WILL BE KING!" SAYS ABSALOM 

thick oak, and Absalom was caught by his head in the oak, 
and the mule ran on and left him hanging. 

Then came one and told Joab, *' Behold, I saw Absalom 
hanging in an oak." 

And Joab cried, "You saw him? Why did you not smite 
him to the ground? I would have given you ten pieces of 
silver." 

But the man replied, "Not for a thousand pieces of silver 
would I put out my hand against the king's son. I heard 
what the king said, 'Deal very gently for my sake with the 
young man Absalom.'" 

Then Joab said, "I have no time to talk with you." And 
he rode away in haste, and came to Absalom, and thrust 
a spear into his heart. 

Now David sat by the gate of Mahanaim,and a watchman 
was upon the top of the wall by the gate. And the watchman 
lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold a man came 
running along; and the watchman told the king. And the 
king said, "He brings good news." 

So the first man came, and it was Ahimaaz. And Ahimaaz 
said, "All is well!" And he bowed before the king and said, 
"Blessed be the Lord God who has delivered up the men 
who lifted their hands against the king." 

And David said, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" 

37 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



And Ahimaaz answered, "When I came away there was a 
great tumult, but I knew not what it was." 
Then came the other runner, crying, ""AH is well!" 
And David said, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" 
And the man answered, "May all the enemies of my lord 
the king be as that young man is." 

Then the king was much moved, and he went up to the 
chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, 
"O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! Would 
God I had died instead of thee, O Absalom, my son, my 
son!" 



IX 




'I WILL BE KING!'' SAYS ADONIJAH 

O Absalom was buried under a heap of 
stones, and then the eldest living son of 
David was Adonijah. But still there stood 
the promise of David to Bathsheba that her 
son Solomon should sit upon his throne. 
And Adonijah felt about it just as Absalom had felt. 
'*Why," he cried, "should my younger brother have the 
crown which belongs of right to me?" 

Now, all his life, Adonijah had been given his own way. 
Never once had his father said to him, "'Why have you done 
thus and so?" Never had his mother scolded him. And 
Adonijah determined to have his own way still. He made up 
his mind to take the crown, no matter what his father said. 
So he began to live in state, Hke a crown prince. He had 
chariots and horsemen; and when he went to drive, fifty 
men in livery went with him. Joab was on his side, and so 
was Abiathar the priest. 

Close by the walls of the Castle of Zion were two springs 
of water. One came out of the hill on the south, and was 

39 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



called the Dragon's Well, En-Rogel; there was a rock be- 
side it, called the Serpent's Rock. The other came out of the 
hill on the east and was called the Fountain, Gihon; there 
was a field beside it, called the Fuller's Field. The springs 
were not far apart, and were connected by a little river, 
called the Kidron, which ran from the one to the other 
along a valley. The water came up clear and cold out of the 
ground, and the springs were shaded by great trees, and 
were places of delight. 

One day, Adonijah made a feast at the Dragon's Well. 
He had sheep and even oxen roasted whole, for he expected 
a large company, and he invited his brothers the princes, 
and the high officers of the court. But not all of them. 
He did not invite his father, the king, who was now too old 
and ill for feasts ; neither did he ask Nathan the prophet, nor 
Benaiah the general, for they were not on his side; and he 
left out Solomon. So they sat down to eat and to drink; 
and Abiathar the priest sat on the right hand of Adonijah, 
and Joab the general sat on his left hand, for they were 
the guests of honor. And they were all very merry. In 
the midst of their merriment, one of them stood up and 
cried, '* Long live King Adonijah!" And in an instant they 
were all upon their feet, shouting at the tops of their voices, 
*Xonglive King Adonijah! Long live King Adonijah!" 

40 



"I WILL, BE KING!" SAYS ADONIJAH 

They made so much noise about it that news of the feast 
came to the ears of the prophet, Nathan, and he hastened 
to tell Bathsheba. 

"Bathsheba," he cried, ''have you heard what has hap- 
pened? Adonijah has been made king, and David knows 
nothing of it! Come now, therefore, if you would save your 
life, and the life of Solomon your son. Go at once to David 
and say to him, 'My lord, O king, did not you promise me 
that Solomon my son should be king after you, and sit upon 
your throne? Why, then, has Adonijah been made king?" 
And while you are speaking with the king, I will come in 
and confirm what you say." 

So Bathsheba went straight to the king. 

Now David was old and weak and near the end of his 
life. And Bathsheba bowed down before him, and the king 
said, "What do you wish, Bathsheba?" And she said, "My 
lord, you swore to me by the Lord God, saying, ' Solomon 
your son shall be king after me, and shall sit upon my 
throne.' And now, see what has happened! Adonijah has 
been made king without your knowledge. Even at this 
moment, he sits at his coronation feast with Joab and Abia- 
thar. Now, my lord, O king, the whole people wait for your 
decision. They wait for you to say who shall be king after 
you." 

41 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



While she was yet speaking, in came the prophet, Nathan. 
And Nathan bowed low before the king. 

"My lord, O king," said Nathan, "have you said *Adoni- 
jah shall sit upon my throne'? For he has gone down this 
day to the Dragon's Well and called to him the princes and 
the captains, and there they sit eating and drinking, and 
crying, *Long live King Adonijah!' He has not invited me, 
not Zadok the priest, nor Solomon. Is this your doing, my 
lord? Have you hidden this matter from us, and chosen 
Adonijah?" 

Then David aroused himself from the weakness of his 
old age, and said to Bathsheba, "As the Lord liveth, who 
hath redeemed me from all adversity, Solomon your son 
shall be king after me. He shall sit in my place on the throne. 
And this he shall do this very day." 

And David commanded Nathan and Zadok, saying, 
"Take my servants with you, let Solomon my son ride on 
my own mule, bring him to the Fountain, and there let 
Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet pour the sacred 
oil upon him and anoint him king over Israel. Then blow 
the trumpet, and cry, ' Long live King Solomon!' " 

Now Adonijah and his guests had just come to the end of 
their merry dinner, when somebody said in the midst of all 
the noise, "What is that sound?" 

42 



^'I WILL BE KING!" SAYS ADONIJAH 

And they were all still and listened, and the sound was 
heard again. Around the corner of the hill, from the spring 
of the Fountain, came the blare of a trumpet. Joab started 
up, and cried, **Who blows the trumpet, and what is the 
meaning of this sound of distant shouting?" 

Then came Jonathan, the son of Abiathar, running. 
"Tidings!" he cried; "tidings, indeed! King David has 
made Solomon king. Solomon has ridden on the king's 
mule to the Fountain. Zadok and Nathan have there 
anointed him. He has already taken his seat upon the royal 
throne, and all the people acclaim him, shouting, 'Long 
live King Solomon!' " 

Then all the guests of Adonijah were seized with terror, 
and every man rose up and fled, each to his own house. 
But Adonijah ran to the altar which stood before the Ark 
of God; for he thought, "Solomon will not kill me there." 
And Solomon said, "So long as Adonijah behaves himself, 
and is a worthy man, nobody shall hurt him." Then Adoni- 
jah came and fell down before the throne of his brother 
Solomon, the king. And the king said, "Go in peace." 

And David died, and Solomon reigned in his stead. 



THE BABY AND THE SWORD 




NE night, King Solomon dreamed a dream, 
and in his dream he heard a voice out of the 
starry sky. And the voice said, "'Solomon, 
what do you wish for most? Ask, and I will 
give it." 

So the king had one wish: what should it be? 
At last, the king said, ""My best wish is to be wise. O 
Lord," he said, looking up into the heavens, *'here am I a 
king in the place of my great father, David ; and here is all 
this people over whom I am to rule; and I am but a child. 
Give thy servant, therefore, an understanding heart to 
judge thy people, that I may see the difference between 
right and wrong, and may know what to do." 

The fact that he wished this wise wish showed that he 
was wise already. 

Then the voice answered, ''Solomon, this is pleasing to 
me, and I will do it. And I will do more also. You might 
have asked for gold and gems, and all the treasures of the 
mines. You might have asked for length of life. You might 

44 



THE BABY AND THE SWORD 

have asked for continual victory in battle. But you have 
chosen wisdom. And in giving you wisdom I will give you 
these other things beside: riches, and long life, and victory. 
You shall be one of the greatest of all the kings that are 
upon the earth." 

Then Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream. But 
the dream came true. 

One time, two women came and stood before the king, 
that he might decide between them. One said, "My lord, 
this woman and I lodge in the same house, and sleep in the 
same room. And we had each a little child, two babies, one 
of them only three days older than the other. And one 
night, while we were asleep, this woman overlaid her child, 
and the child could not breathe, and it died. And then what 
did she do? She waked and found that her child was dead, 
and she came over and laid her dead child by my side, and 
took my live child into her bed. And when I arose in the 
morning to nurse my child, behold the child in my arms was 
dead! But when the day grew light, and I could see, behold 
the baby was not mine, but hers." 

And the other woman said, "No, but the living is my son, 
and the dead is your son." 

And the first woman said, "No, but the dead is your son, 
and the living is my son." 

45 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



Thus they contended before the king. 

Then the king said, " This one says, ^ The living is my 
son, and your son is dead,' and the other says, *No, but your 
son is dead, and my son is the living/ Bring me a sword." 

So they brought a sword before the king. And the king 
said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the 
one, and half to the other." 

Then the woman to whom the child truly belonged cried 
to the king, — for her heart was full of fear and love for her 
child, — and she said, **0 my lord, give her the living child 
and do not divide it ; in no wise slay it ! " But the other said, 
"Let it be neither hers nor mine; divide it." 

Then the king answered and said, "Give the child to the 
one who would not have it put to death. She is the 
mother." 

And all the people praised the wisdom of the king, for they 
saw that God had truly given him an understanding heart. 



XI 




THE QUEEN OF SHEBA 

NE time, Kjng Solomon had a splendid vis- 
itor. From over the hills and far away, 
across the wide plains of Arabia, with a 
shining company of lords and ladies, and 
with camels laden with spices and gold and 
perfumes and precious stones, came the queen of Sheba. 

And the queen said, "King Solomon, even in far-distant 
Sheba where I live, men speak of your wisdom and your 
glory, and I have come that I may see with my own eyes 
and hear with my own ears." And immediately she began 
to ask him questions. 

Some of the questions were probably riddles, such as are 
written in the Book of Proverbs. "What four things are 
little upon the earth, but they are exceedingly wise? The 
ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in 
the sunmier; the conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they 
their houses in the rocks; the locusts have no king, yet go 
they forth all of them by bands; the spider taketh hold 
with her hands, and is in kings' palaces." 

47 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



Many of the answers were wise sayings about the best 
living of our life. "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, 
and the man that getteth understanding: For the merchan- 
dise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the 
gain thereof than pure gold. She is more precious than 
rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be 
compared with her." 

If the queen asked about the land over which the king 
reigned, Solomon could speak of trees, from the cedar tree 
that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth 
out of the wall ; and also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creep- 
ing things, and of fishes. 

Solomon answered all her questions. There was not any- 
thing hid from the king which he told her not. 

Then said the queen of Sheba, "Now show me all the 
wonders of your court." 

And Solomon showed her the Castle of Zion, the city 
which David had begun to build, and which Solomon him- 
self had filled with strength and beauty. 

He led her into the House of the Forest of Lebanon, which 
had so many cedar pillars that it looked like an enchanted 
wood ; and along the walls hung the shields and bucklers of 
the king's bodyguard, all of pure gold. 

He brought her into the Hall of Judgment, and. showed 

48 




O 

g' 



THE QUEEN OF SHEBA 



her his splendid throne of ivory, overlaid with gold; and 
the arms of the throne were golden lions, and on the six 
steps leading to the throne were twelve lions, two on each 
step. 

Then they came to the King's palace, where Solomon 
lived, and his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt. And 
all the walls were made of stone, and were cased within with 
carved work of cedar. And at the table, all the cups and 
plates were made of pure gold. And as they ate, they were 
waited on by servants in gorgeous liveries, while skilful 
harpers played sweet music on harps of red sandal-wood. 
And in the pantry and the storeroom and the kitchen were 
provisions for the king's court for one day: six hundred 
bushels of fine flour, and twice that quantity of meal; ten 
fat oxen from the stalls and twenty from the pastures; and 
a hundred sheep ; beside harts and roebucks and fallow 
deer and fatted fowls. And outside, in the garden, among 
the trees and flowers, were apes and peacocks. 

After that. King Solomon brought the queen of Sheba to 
the summit of the holy hill, and there was the splendid 
Temple. In front of the Temple, cut out of the rock of the 
hill, was the great altar where they ofi^ered the burnt sacri- 
fice. 

And the king said to the queen, "There is a strange story 

49 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



about that rock. One time, in my father David's day, there 
was a deadly plague among the people. They were dying 
every day in every place, till the number of the dead was 
as much as seventy thousand. And my father had a vision. 
He saw an angel standing on this rock and stretching out 
his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it. And he heard the 
voice of the Lord saying to the angel, *It is enough; stay 
now thine hand '; and that day the plague ceased. Now, 
the place was a threshing-floor, where a Jebusite named 
Araunah threshed his grain, a high place where the wind 
would blow away the chafi^. And my father sent and bought 
it, and on the rock he built an altar, and offered burnt of- 
ferings and peace offerings. There we bring our offerings, 
and there I built this Temple." 

Beside the altar on the rock was a vast basin of brass 
which held so many gallons of water that they called it the 
Brazen Sea, and it rested on the backs of twelve brazen 
oxen. And to carry this water to the priests, to wash their 
hands, were ten great bowls of brass on wheels. 

On either side of the entrance into the Temple were two 
tall brazen pillars, carved at the tops into shapes of lilies 
and pomegranates. The Temple itself was all of hewn stone. 
Between the pillars, and through a lofty porch, the king led 
the queen into a great room, floored with cypress, and hav- 

50 



THE QUEEN OF SHEBA 



ing its walls lined with cedar, and the cedar was carved with 
flowers and palms and gourds and winged angels. In this 
room was a golden table, on which were placed twelve 
loaves of bread. Beside the table was a seven-branched 
candlestick of gold. 

And out of the great room opened a small room, through 
carved doors of olive-wood. This was the shrine, the Holy 
of Holies. Here were two carved figures of olive-wood, three 
times taller than a man, and their wings touched, tip to 
tip, and the outer tips touched the two side walls. Between 
these winged figures was the Ark of God, the sacred chest 
which Moses made, and which Joshua carried into battle, 
and which the Philistines captured from the sons of Eli and 
then sent back with five gold mice upon it, and which 
David brought at last into the Castle of Zion. Within the 
Ark lay the two tables of stone written over with the Ten 
Commandments. 

Now when the queen of Sheba saw all the glory of Solo- 
mon, his stately buildings, his ivory throne, the gold of his 
table, the array of his courtiers, the dress of his servants all 
blue and purple and scarlet, and the Temple of the Lord, 
she said to the king, "It was a true report that I heard in 
my own land of all thy wisdom and thy majesty. But I 
could not believe it till I came and saw with my own eyes. 

51 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



And behold, the half was not told me! Happy are they who 
minister in thy courts; happy are the people over whom 
thou rulest. Blessed be the Lord thy God who hath set thee 
on the throne of Israel." 



XII 




TEN TORN PIECES 

HERE was a man named Jeroboam,a widow's 
son, who was an overseer of Solomon's work- 
men. The king had found that the young 
man was able and industrious, and had put 
him in charge of the great gangs of men who 
were building the palace and the new walls of the Castle of 
Zion. But the men had no pay, except the food which they 
ate. They had been brought down from their homes in the- 
north, and forced to labor for the king. At the same time, 
other men were made to work in the forests and in the 
mines, felling trees and cutting stone for the king's build- 
ings. And they were very discontented. And Jeroboam 
was discontented for their sake. He felt that Solomon was 
making the people slaves. 

One day, as Jeroboam was walking in a field, the prophet 
Ahijah met him. Jeroboam was wearing a new coat. And 
as they talked, suddenly Ahijah seized the coat, pulled 
it off from Jeroboam's shoulders, and tore it into twelve 
pieces. Ten pieces he gave to Jeroboam, and said, " Thus 

S3 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



saith the Lord, the God of Israel, ' Behold, I will rend the 
kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten 
tribes to thee.' '' Then the overseer saw that the prophet 
had been reading the thoughts of his heart. For Jeroboam 
had been making up his mind to deliver the people from the 
oppression of the king. 

"You shall be king," said Ahijah to Jeroboam. "You 
shall be king over Israel, in the place of Solomon, or in the 
place of Solomon's son." 

But Solomon found out the plans which his overseer had 
against him, and Jeroboam fled for his life into the land of 
Egypt. 

Now when the mighty reign of Solomon was over, and the 
king was dead, the crown came to his young son, Rehoboam. 
But Rehoboam could not wear the crown until the tribes 
should have given their consent. So there was a meeting of 
the people to consider what to do. And the people said to 
Rehoboam, "Your father made our yoke grievous. He 
put heavy burdens on our shoulders. We had to work long 
hours for poor pay. He treated us like slaves. Let us hear 
now what you propose to do. Make our yoke lighter, and 
we will serve you." 

And Rehoboam said, "Come back in three days' time, 
and I will answer you." 

54 



TEN TORN PIECES 



So Rehoboam consulted with the old men who had lived 
in the court of his father. "What answer," he said, ''shall 
I give to the demands of the people?" 

And the old men, who had seen the tyranny of Solomon, 
said to Rehoboam, "If you will serve the people, and give 
them a good answer, they will be your faithful servants 
forever." 

But the answer of the old men did not please young Re- 
hoboam, and he consulted the young men, his own com- 
panions. "What do you advise?" he said. 

And the young men said, " This is the right reply to make 
to the demands of the people. Say to them, *My little fin- 
ger shall be thicker than my father's loins. My father put 
upon you a heavy yoke, but I will make it heavier. He 
chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with 
scourges.'" 

So the three days came to an end, and the tribes went to 
hear Rehoboam's answer. And he answered them as the 
young men advised. "My father made your yoke heavy, 
but I will make it heavier still. He chastised you with whips, 
but I will chastise you with scourges." 

Then no voice cried, "Long live King Rehoboam!" In- 
stead of that, the men rose up against the king. They de- 
fied him to his face. He had thought to deal with them as 

55 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



masters deal with slaves. But they showed him that they 
were free men. They shouted one to another, with great 
voices, "To your tents, O Israel! Now see to thine own 
house, David!" And the men who shouted were ten tribes. 
Only Judah and Benjamin, the people of the south, who 
lived in Jerusalem and thereabout, remained with Reho- 
boam. When one of Rehoboam's officers addressed the 
people, trying to call them back, they stoned him so that 
he died. And Rehoboam got into his chariot and fled to 
Jerusalem to save his life. 

Then came Jeroboam back from Egypt, and they made 
him king of Israel. 



XIII 



THE PROPHET AND THE LION 




O the people were divided into two kingdoms, 
Judah in the south and Israel in the north. 
Now in the northern kingdom there were 
two holy places. One was Dan, at the sources 
■• of the Jordan, the other was Bethel, only 
four hours' journey from Jerusalem. It was at Bethel that 
Jacob had seen the vision of the ladder, on which the angels 
were coming down from heaven and going up again. *' Surely 
God is in this place," said Jacob; and he made an altar 
there. These holy places, Jeroboam adorned with golden 
images : calves, such as Aaron had made in the wilderness, 
or bulls, such as Solomon had made to glorify the Temple. 
And he ordained priests to wait upon the altars. 

One day, there came to Bethel from Judah a man of 
God, a young prophet. The young prophet felt that Jero- 
boam had done evil in dividing the people. He hated the 
altars which the King of Israel had made. And he came out 
of Judah to Bethel to say so. Boldly he stood in the pre- 
sence of the king and of his court, and declared the message 

57 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



which he believed God had given him. " O altar! altar T' 
he cried ; "men's bones shall be burnt upon thee." And when 
the king put forth his hand to lay hold upon the prophet, 
suddenly his hand was withered, till the man of God be- 
sought the Lord, and it was restored to him again, and 
became as it was before. 

Then the king, liking the young prophet's boldness, 
asked him to dine with him. "Come home with me," 
he said, "and refresh yourself, and I will give you a re- 
ward." 

But the man refused. "If you were to give me the half 
of all your house, I would not go in with you; neither will I 
eat bread nor drink water in this place. For the Lord who 
sent me said to me, *Eat no bread, nor drink water; go in 
one way to Bethel, and come out another.'" 

So the prophet, having done his errand, departed into 
his own land another way. 

But there lived in Bethel an old prophet, and when his 
sons came home that day, they told him what had happened 
at the altar. "A young man came," they said, "and cursed 
the altar which you have blessed." And the old man was 
troubled, for in so doing the young prophet had condemned 
him. It was as if the man from Judah had said, "Here you 
live, you old prophet, and let these wrong things go on. 

58 



THE PROPHET AND THE LION 

You ought to be ashamed." The old prophet hardly knew 
whether to be ashamed or angry. 

"Which way did the man go?" he said. And when they 
told him, straight he saddled his ass, and rode off down the 
road to overtake him. 

He found him sitting under an oak. "Are you the man 
of God," he asked, "who came from Judah?", 

"I am," he answered. 

"Come home, then, with me and eat bread." 

But he replied, " I may not return with you, nor go in with 
you ; neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in 
this place. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, 
* Thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink water there, nor turn 
again to go by the way that thou camest.'" 

Then the old man put the young man to a test. "I will 
see," he said to himself, "whether he is a faithful prophet 
or not. He has withstood one temptation, he would not 
dine with the king. Now I will try him with another." And 
he said, "Young man, I am a prophet as well as you ; and an 
angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, even as to you, 
and the angel said, ' Bring him back with thee into thine 
house, that he may eat bread and drink water."- But he 
lied to him. 

And the young prophet believed him. He ought to have 

59 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



said, "God spoke to me; and until He speaks again and 
changes His command, I will do what He said. No matter 
what He spoke to you. That is not my business. I must do 
my own errand, and follow my own revelation of God's will." 
But he believed the old prophet. He went back with him, 
and did eat bread in his house, and drank water. 

And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word 
of the Lord came of a truth to the prophet who brought him 
back. And he cried unto the man of God who came from 
Judah, saying "You have cursed the altar which I blessed; 
you have said to the people that I am no true prophet, else I 
would have cursed it long ago. But you are no true prophet, 
either. Thus saith the Lord " — and the old man rose from 
the table, and lifted his hands on high — "Forasmuch as 
you have disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and have not 
kept the commandment which the Lord your God com- 
manded you, but came back, and have eaten bread and 
drunk water in this place, of the which the Lord did say to 
you, * Eat no bread, and drink no water,' surely evil shall 
befall you. You should have done what you knew to be 
right, and should have refused to do what you knew to be 
wrong, no matter what anybody said." 

Then the young man started to go home. And when he 
was gone, a lion met him by the way and slew him, and his 

60 



THE PROPHET AND THE LION 

body was cast in the way, and the ass on which he rode stood 
on one side, and the lion on the other. 

And men passed by and saw the body cast in the way, 
and the ass and the lion standing beside it, and they came 
and told of it in Bethel, and the old prophet heard it. And 
the old prophet said, "It is the man of God who was dis- 
obedient unto the word of the Lord." And he said to his 
sons, " Saddle me the ass." 

And he went and found as it was told, the body cast in 
the way, and the ass and the lion standing beside it. And 
the prophet took up the body of the man of God, and brought 
it back to Bethel. And he laid him in his own grave, in the 
tomb which he had hewn out of the rock. And he mourned 
for him, crying, "Alas! my brother." And he said to his 
sons, "When I am dead, bury me in the sepulchre wherein 
the man of God is buried ; lay my bones beside his bones. 
For the word which he spoke against the altars of this land 
is true." 



XIV 



THE SPARING OF BENHADAD 




S the soldiers of Israel came back from a vic- 
torious battle with the Syrians, a prophet 
met them. And the prophet said to the first 
man he met, "Strike me in the face!" 
But the man would not do it. "Not 11" 
he said. "Why should I strike you?" 
The prophet said, "May the lions eat you!" 
The next man did as the prophet asked. He struck him 
so that the blood flowed. Then the prophet bound up his 
bloody head, and waited for the king. 

And Ahab the king came by. And the prophet cried and 
said, "O king, help me! I was in the midst of the battle, 
and suddenly a soldier turned aside and brought a prisoner 
to me. 'Watch this man,' he said, 'and if by any chance he 
shall be missing, then I will have your life for his life!' And, 
O king, as I was busy here and there, the prisoner was gone ! " 
The king said, "You have decided your own case. You 
let the man escape; you must pay the penalty." 
Then the prophet took the covering from about his head, 

62 



THE SPARING OF BENHADAD 

and the king saw who he was. And the prophet said, "Thus 
said the Lord to you, O king, ' Because you have let go out 
of your hand the man whom I had condemned to death, 
your life shall be for his life, and your people shall be for 
his people/'* 

And Ahab, king of Israel, went home disturbed and angry. 

Now what had happened was this. There had been a long 
war between Ahab, king of Israel, and Benhadad, king of 
Syria. Benhadad began it, because he was the stronger. He 
sent messengers to Ahab, saying, " The gold and silver of 
your city belong to me. Come, send all you have. And when 
you send the money, send along your wives and children 
also!" 

And Ahab consented, because he did not see how he could 
help it. 

Then Benhadad said, ** While we are taking the gold and 
silver, and the wives and children, we will see if there is any- 
thing else which we want. Give us the keys of all your 
houses, and we will search them. Whatever we find that 
is attractive, we will carry it away!" 

But the king felt that this was more than he could bear, 
and the people agreed with him. They would die first, they 
said. So Ahab sent back Benhadad's messengers saying, 
" This I cannot do." And to Benhadad's threats he said, 

63 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



"Let not him that girdeth on his armor boast himself as he 
that putteth it oflE." 

Then Benhadad of Syria came out to battle, with thirty- 
two kings to help him. And he was in his tent with his 
companions drinking themselves drunk — so sure were they 
of victory — when one came and said, " The Israelites are 
coming!" 

Benhadad said, "Very well, take them alive. If they come 
in peace, take them alive. Or if they come in war, take them 
alive." 

But the Israelites fell upon the Syrians so fiercely that 
they fled in defeat and terror from the field, and Benhadad 
fled with them. 

The next year the Syrians came back. They had now an 
army greater than before. They had dismissed the inefficient 
kings, and had put captains in their places. They said, " The 
Israelites defeated us last year because we fought among 
the hills, for their gods are hill gods. Now we will fight 
them in the plain." 

And their army filled the country. The Israelites en- 
camped before them like two little flocks of goats. On the 
seventh day, they joined in battle; and again the Syrians 
fled, and Benhadad with them; and they took refuge in a 
city and the Israelites pursued them and besieged them. 

64 



THE SPARING OF BENHADAD 

Then the servants of Benhadad said to him in his distress, 
"We have heard that the kings of Israel are merciful kings. 
Let us clothe ourselves in sackcloth, and put ropes upon 
our heads, and go out to the king of Israel, and implore 
him to spare your life." 

And this they did. They girded sackcloth about them, 
and put ropes upon their heads, and came to the king of 
Israel, and said, "Thy servant Benhadad says, 'I pray 
thee, let me live.'" 

And Ahab answered, " Is he yet alive ? He is my brother." 

"Yes, indeed," cried the Syrians, catching up his words, 
"he is your brother." 

And Ahab said, "Go bring him." 

So they brought Benhadad, and Ahab took him into his 
own chariot. And there they made an agreement, the two 
kings together. Benhadad said, "The cities which my 
father took from your father, I will restore; and you may 
have a street and market in my capital city of Damascus, 
as my father had a street and market in your capital city of 
Samaria." To this Ahab consented. 

Thus he spared the king of Syria's life, and brought upon 
himself the reproof of the prophet. 

The prophet would have had Ahab kill Benhadad, as 
Samuel, in the old time, had hewed King Agag in pieces. 

65 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



His idea was that between the people of the Lord and their 
neighbors there should be no peace nor truce. But Ahab 
desired to make his kingdom strong. He had already 
strengthened it toward the west by marrying Jezebel, the 
daughter of the king of Sidon. Now he strengthened it 
toward the east by sparing Benhadad, king of Damascus. 



XV 



A HANDFUL OF MEAL 




HERE was a mighty famine in the land, and 
all the people were in want. Day after day, 
and even month after month, the sun had 
come up shining in the morning and had 
gone down shining in the evening, till the 
people hated the sight of it. When spring came, they could 
not plant, for all the fields were dry as dust. And when the 
fall came, there were no crops to reap. 

Even the king went out to look for water. He called the 
governor to his palace. '' Let us go," he said, *'into the land 
to all the springs of water and to all the brooks. It may 
be that we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive, 
that we lose not all the beasts." And out they started, the 
governor in one direction, and the king in the other, 
to see if in all the country there remained one flowing 
stream, or one green field. 

Now near Sidon, where Ahab had married Jezebel, there 
was a town called Zarephath, and in it dwelt a poor widow 
with her only son. And one day, when the famine was at its 

67 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



height, and the cupboard was almost bare, and nothing was 
left in the house but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little 
oil in a cruse, the widow went out to the gate of the town 
to gather wood. 

"I will get some sticks," she said to herself, "and make a 
fire, and my son and I will have one more supper before we 
die of hunger." 

So she stooped to gather the wood into her apron, and 
stood up again, and there was a man coming out of the 
country, a strange-looking man. His hair and beard were 
long, and for a coat he had the yellow, hairy skin of a camel, 
and a long staff in his hand. 

The man said, " Bring me, I pray you, a little water in a 
cup, that I may drink." For he had come a long and thirsty 
journey. And as she was going to fetch it, he said, "And 
bring me also, I pray you, a bit of bread." 

Then said the woman, "I and my son are dying in this 
famine. All that I have is a handful of meal in a barrel and 
a little olive oil in a cruse; and here I am gathering two 
sticks that I may go in and make bread for the last time 
for my little son and me." 

But the man said, "I am a man of God. My name is 
Elijah. I have been living away across the country, beyond 
the Jordan, in the wilderness of Gilead, beside a brook. 

68 



A HANDFUL OF MEAL 



There the Lord has taken care of me. Even the ravens fed 
me, bringing bread and meat in the morning and bread and 
meat in the evening; and I drank of the brook. And when 
the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land, 
the Lord sent me here to you. Come, now, let us trust in 
the Lord together. Make bread for me and for you and your 
son, for thus saith the Lord, ' The barrel of meal shall not 
waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day when 
the Lord shall send the rain.'" 

And the woman did as Elijah said. And he and she and 
her son had food to eat. And the barrel of meal did not 
waste, neither did the cruse of oil fail, until the rain came. 



XVI 



THE FIRE AND THE RAIN 




HEN Jezebel came from Sidon to be the wife 
of Ahab, and queen of Israel, she brought 
her religion with her. The people of Sidon, 
like most of those whom the Israelites found 
in Palestine, worshipped God under the name 
of Baal; but the Israelites worshipped him under the name 
of Jehovah. One difference between the two religions was 
that the Israelites believed in one Jehovah, one Lord God 
over all the earth, while Jezebel and her people believed in 
many Baals, dwelling in all the high mountains, and beside 
the springs of water, and in the fertile fields. Another dif- 
ference was that the Israelites believed that Jehovah cared 
much about their conduct, and was the God of the Ten 
Commandments, while Jezebel believed that Baal was satis- 
fied with the offering of sacrifice, and did not care whether 
men did right or wrong; indeed, some things, which in the 
religion of Jehovah were held to be very wrong, were en- 
couraged in the religion of Baal. Thus the differences were 
of great importance. 

70 



THE FIRE AND THE RAIN 

Jezebel brought her religion with her. Her father had 
been a priest, until one day he murdered the king of Sidon 
and took his place. She brought priests of Baal more and 
more, till there were hundreds of them; and they ate at 
the queen's table. The prophets of Jehovah she disliked 
and persecuted till they had to hide from her hatred in the 
woods and in the caves. 

Thus there was a strife between the two religions, and it 
seemed as if the religion of Baal would drive the religion of 
Jehovah out. Some people said that that was why the 
famine came. "Elijah," they said, "has prayed to Jehovah, 
and He has stopped the rain." 

At last, the people were summoned to meet in a great 
assembly at Mount Carmel to decide this matter. Which of 
the two religions shall be the religion of the land? Ahab 
called all Israel. 

On one side were the priests of Baal, under the protection 
of the court. On the other side was Elijah. As for the pro- 
phets of Jehovah, they did not dare to show their heads for 
fear the queen would kill them. Thus there were four hun- 
dred and fifty men on one side, and one man on the other. 
But the one man was not afraid. In the face of the king 
and queen and all the priests, he declared that the religion 
of Baal was false, and that the only true God was Jehovah. 

71 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



Elijah cried to the great assembly of Israel, "How long 
will you halt between two opinions? If Jehovah is God, 
follow Him; but if Baal is God, then follow him." 

But the people answered him not a word. 

Then said Elijah, "I, even I only, remain a prophet of 
Jehovah; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty 
men. Come, now, let us take two bullocks; and let them 
take one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and 
lay it on wood on their altar, and put no fire under. And I 
will take the other bullock and prepare it for my sacrifice, 
and lay it on my altar on the wood, and put no fire under. 
Let them call on the name of Baal and I will call on the 
name of Jehovah; and the God who answers by fire, let 
Him be God." 

And all the people answered and said, "It is well spoken." 

So the priests of Baal took a bullock, and cut it in pieces, 
and laid the sacrifice upon the altar on the wood, and 
put no fire under; and they called upon their God. From 
morning until noon they called, crying, "O Baal, hear us! 
O Baal, hear us!" But there was no voice, nor any that 
answered. 

When it was noon, and the priests still cried and the 
people waited, and nothing happened, Elijah mocked them. 
" Cry louder," he said ; " Baal is busy ; either he is talking, or 

72 



THE FIRE AND THE RAIN 

he is hunting, or he has gone upon a journey; or else he is 
asleep and must be awaked." 

And they cried louder and louder, and cut themselves 
after their manner with knives and lances till the blood 
gushed out upon them. And the hours passed until the sun 
began to set, and still there was no voice nor answer, nor was 
any heed given to their prayers. 

Then said Elijah to the people, "Come near to me." And 
all the people came near to him. 

There had been an altar of Jehovah in that place, but it 
was broken down. Elijah took twelve stones, according to 
the number of the tribes of Israel, and built it up again. 
He made a trench around the altar, and prepared his 
bullock, and laid the sacrifice upon the altar on the wood. 
And he said, " Fill four jars with water and pour it on the 
sacrifice, and on the wood." And he said, "' Do it the second 
time"; and they did it the second time. And he said, "Do 
it the third time"; and they did it the third time. And the 
water ran round about the altar till the trench was full. 

Then Elijah lifted up his hands to heaven and prayed, 
"O Lord God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it 
be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I 
am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at 
Thy command. Hear me, O Jehovah, heax me, that this 

73 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and that 
Thou hast turned their heart back again." 

Then the fire of the Lord fell. There was a flash as of 
lightning out of the clear sky. The bullock and all the wood 
were burned, even the stones of the altar were consumed; 
and the fire licked up the water that was in the trench. 

When the people saw it, they fell upon their faces; and 
they cried, "Jehovah He is the God! Jehovah He is the 
God!" 

And Elijah called to them to seize the priests of Baal. "Let 
not one of them escape." And they laid hold on them, and 
carried them down the side of the mountain to the bottom 
of the valley. And the priests of Baal did not come back 
again. 

And Elijah said to Ahab, "Get thee up, eat and drink, 
for there is a sound of abundance of rain." 

So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went 
up to the top of Mount Carmel, and sat upon the ground, 
having his face between his knees. And he said to his serv- 
ant, "Go up now, and look toward the sea." And his serv- 
ant went up, and came back presently saying, "There is 
nothing." The hot sky was without a cloud, as it had been 
for months, and the sea lay beneath it like a mirror. 

And Elijah said, "Go again, and look; and still again," till 

74 



THE FIRE AND THE RAIN 

he had gone seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh 
time that the servant said, " Behold, there rises out of the 
sea a little cloud, like a man's hand." And Elijah said, **Go, 
say to Ahab, ' Prepare your chariot, and get you down from 
the mountain, before the rain stops you.' " 

And in the mean while, the heavens grew black with 
clouds, and the winds blew, and the waves roared in the sea, 
and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode in his chariot, 
in all haste, before the rain, and Elijah ran before him. 



XVII 




THE STILL, SMALL VOICE 

OWN ran Elijah before Ahab's chariot 
across the plain to Jezreel. And the rain 
came behind. But in the palace was the 
queen, and when the king told her what had 
happened, and how the prophets of Baal had 
been defeated and destroyed, she was angry exceedingly. 
As for the fire from heaven, that, she said, was only an ac- 
cidental stroke of lightning; and as for the rain, it would 
have rained anyhow. Jezebel believed in Baal still, and 
declared that the fire and the rain proved nothing. 

So the queen sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "You 
have slain my prophets with the sword. Now let the gods 
do so to me and more also if I make not your life as the life 
of one of them, by to-morrow about this time." 

When he heard that, he arose and fled for his life. He had 
defied the king and mocked the priests of Baal ; he had com- 
manded the lightning and the rain; but he was afraid of the 
queen. Suddenly in the midst of his success, his courage 
failed him. He saw, too, that the people, though they had 

76 



THE STILL, SMALL VOICE 

shouted, "Jehovah is the God! Jehovah is the God!" were 
not much in earnest about it. They explained the fire and 
the rain as the queen did. It was no miracle, they said. It 
was no argument. It just happened so. 

Thus the prophet who had stood up on the Lord's side 
saw that he still stood alone. His victory was turned into 
defeat. Away he went, out of the reach of Jezebel, and made 
his way toward that great mountain in Arabia where the 
Lord Jehovah had spoken face to face with Moses. 'T will 
go," he said, "and find God." For in this sudden turn of 
fortune, it seemed to him that God was far away. 

On his journey he came to Beersheba, far in the south, 
where Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had lived, in the old 
time. And out of Beersheba he went a day's journey into 
the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper 
tree. And he requested for himself that he might die. *Tt 
is enough," he said; "now, O Lord, take away my life, for 
I am not better than my fathers." 

And under the juniper tree, he lay down and slept. 

And in his sleep an angel touched him, and the angel said, 
"Arise and eat." And he looked, and behold, there was a 
cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water. And he did 
eat and drink, and laid him down again. 

And again a second time this happened. He slept, and an 

77 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



angel touched him, and the angel said, "Arise and eat, or 
else the journey will be too long for you." And he arose, and 
did eat and drink, and went in the strength of the food forty 
days and forty nights to the mount of God, which was 
called Horeb and Sinai. 

And he found a cave, and lodged there. And behold, the 
word of the Lord Jehovah came to him, and the Lord said, 
"What doest thou here, Elijah?" 

And Elijah said, "I have been very jealous for the Lord 
God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy 
covenant, and thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy 
prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and 
they seek my life to take it away." 

And the Lord said, "Go forth and stand upon the mount 
before the Lord." 

And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong 
wind rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks be- 
fore the Lord ; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after 
the wind, an earthquake ; but the Lord was not in the earth- 
quake. And after the earthquake, a fire; but the Lord was 
not in the fire. 

And after the fire, a still, small voice. 

When Elijah heard in his soul the still, small voice, he 
wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood at 

78 



THE STILL, SMALL VOICE 

the entrance of the cave. And the voice said, "What doest 
thou here, Elijah?" 

And Elijah said, "I have been very jealous for the Lord 
God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy 
covenant, and thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy 
prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and 
they seek my life to take it away." 

And the Lord said, ''Elijah, you are not alone in Israel. 
There are seven thousand men in your country who have 
not bowed their knees to Baal, and have not kissed his 
images with their mouths. Go back now ; take up your work 
again. This shall you do, and that shall you do, and shall 
win great victories yet for my name's sake. Be strong and 
of a good courage." 

And Elijah went back into the land of Israel, and stood 
again against Baal, and against the queen. 



XVIII 



NABOTH'S VINEYARD 




OW in the city of Jezreel, which was King 
Ahab's northern capital, there was a vine- 
yard close beside the palace. And Ahab 
said to Naboth, the owner of the vineyard, 
"Give me your vineyard that I may have it 
for a garden of vegetables, because it is near my house. I 
will either give you a better vineyard for it, or I will pay 
you what it is worth in money." 

But Naboth said to Ahab, "This was my father's vine- 
yard, and my grandfather had it before him. It is my in- 
heritance. I will not sell it.'' 

So the king went back into his palace, heavy and dis- 
pleased, and laid him down upon his bed, and turned his 
face to the wall. And when it came time for dinner, and they 
sent to call him, there he was, and he would not come down. 
He would eat nothing. So the queen came to see what was 
the matter. 

"Why are you so sad?" said Jezebel. "What has hap- 
pened that you lie here on your bed, and will not come to 
dinner?" 

80 



NABOTH'S VINEYARD 



And Ahab said, "You know the vineyard next to the pal- 
ace, where we had planned to make a garden of vegetables. 
I spoke to Naboth about it, and he will not sell it. I said, 
'I will give you a better vineyard, or I will pay you 
in money'; and he said, 'It is my vineyard, I will keep 
it.'" 

Then said Jezebel to Ahab, "Are you not the king of 
Israel? Come, now, arise and eat, and let your heart be 
merry. I will give you Naboth's vineyard." 

So Jezebel wrote letters in Ahab's name, and signed them 
with the royal seal, and sent them to the elders and the 
nobles who lived in Jezreel and were Naboth's neighbors. 
And in the letters she said, " Proclaim a fast, and set up 
Naboth on a high place among the people, and hire two 
men to bear witness against him, saying, 'Naboth has 
cursed God and the king.' Then carry him out, and stone 

him to death." 

« 

And the elders and the nobles of the city, Naboth's 
neighbors, did as Jezebel commanded. They proclaimed 
a fast, and set up Naboth on a high place among the people ; 
and in came two false witnesses, and witnessed against 
him, saying, "Naboth did curse God and the king." Then 
they carried him out of the city, and stoned him with stones 
till he died. 

8i 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, "Naboth is stoned, and 
is dead." 

And when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned and was 
dead, she said to Ahab, *' Arise, now, take possession of the 
vineyard of Naboth which he refused to give you for money, 
for Naboth is not alive, but is dead." And Ahab rose up, 
to go down to Naboth's vineyard to take possession of it. 

But he had forgotten Elijah. 

Immediately, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, say- 
ing, "Arise, go down to meet Ahab. Behold he is in the 
vineyard of Naboth, whither he has gone down to possess 
it. And say to him,* Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, 
and also taken possession?' and say also, * Thus saith the 
Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth 
shall dogs lick thy blood.'" 

So Ahab stood in the midst of Naboth's vineyard, and 
planned his garden of vegetables. "Here," he said, "I will 
plant this, and there I will plant that. Here shall be a 
hedge, and there a wall." And he looked up, and behold, 
Elijah came! 

Elijah came looking as he looked that day on Carmel 
when he called down fire out of the sky. His hair and beard 
were long and wild, and he bad the yellow skin of a camel 
girded about him, and in his hand he clenched his staff. 

82 



NABOTH'S VINEYARD 



And Ahab said, "Have you found me, O my enemy?" 
And Elijah answered, "I have found you, Ahab. You 
have sold yourself to work evil in the sight of God. And on 
you shall evil come. Thus saith the Lord, ' For the provoca- 
tion wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made 
Israel to sin, I will destroy thy house. As dogs licked the 
blood of Naboth, so shall dogs lick thy blood, and dogs shall 
eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.'" 

Thus did Elijah speak to King Ahab as Nathan, before 
him, spoke to King David. And Ahab, like David, repented 
of his sin. He rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon him, 
and fasted. 



XIX 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE 




HE time had come for the end of the ministry 
of Elijah. He had aheady appointed his 
successor. For on the day when he came 
back from Mount Sinai, having heard the 
still, small voice, he passed a man who was 
ploughing in a field. The man was named Elisha. He was 
ploughing in his father's field, having twelve yoke of oxen 
before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah, as he 
passed, took off his mantle and cast it over the shoulders of 
Elisha. Immediately, Elisha stopped his ploughing. He 
left the oxen. He ran after Elijah, and said, "'Let me, I pray 
thee, kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow thee." 
But Elijah said, "Go back again. What have I done to 
thee?" Elisha knew, however, that he had been called to 
be the companion of Elijah. 

And now Elijah was starting again upon a journey. As 
he had gone before to Mount Sinai to meet God as Moses 
had met Him there, so now he was going to Mount Nebo, 
to whose heights Moses had at last gone up, and had never 

84 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE 



come down again. Elijah knew that the end of his life was 
near at hand. He desired to die amidst the wild and lofty' 
hills where the Lord had buried Moses. 

But he urged Elisha not to go with him. He wished to 
spare him the last pain of parting. So he said to him at 
Gilgal, '* Tarry here, I pray thee ; for the Lord hath sent me 
to Bethel." But Elisha said, ''As the Lord liveth, and as 
thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee." So they went down to 
Bethel. 

And there was a company of prophets at Bethel, to whom 
Elijah wished to say a last word before he went. And they 
said to Elisha, "Do you know that this day the Lord will 
take away your master?" He said, "Yes, I know it. Do 
not speak of it; I cannot bear to hear it." 

And Elijah said, "Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the 
Lord hath sent me to Jericho." But Elisha said, "As the 
Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee." 
So they came to Jericho. 

And at Jericho also there was a company of prophets. 
And they said to Elisha, "Do you know that this day the 
Lord will take away your master?" He said, "Yes, I know 
it. Do not speak of it to me." 

Then Elijah said, "Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the 
Lord hath sent me to Jordan." But Elisha said again, "As, 

85 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



the Lord liveth,and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee." 
So they two went on. 

And as they went, fifty of the prophets followed them, 
and stood by the river on the high bank, to see what would 
happen. And they said that they saw Elijah take off his 
mantle and wrap it together and smite the water. "And 
the water," they said, "was divided hither and hither, and 
the two went over on dry ground." 

So they went over the river Jordan, and came to the 
mountains of Moab. And Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what 
I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee." 

And Elisha said, "I pray thee, let a double portion of thy 
spirit be upon me." 

And Elijah answered, "You have asked a hard thing. The 
spirit of a prophet cannot be given to a prophet, like a mantle. 
But see now what you will do when the storm comes, and 
the skies are open, and I am taken away. If you look on 
unafraid and see me when I am taken up, then shall you 
be my successor, indeed, and have a double portion of my 
spirit. But if you are afraid, and shut your eyes in terror, 
then you are not the man to carry on my work." 

And as they still went on and talked, behold, the sky grew 
black above them, and the wind began to blow as it blew 
that day on Sinai, and the thunder rolled among the hills, 

86 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE 



and the lightnings flashed, and in the midst of the storm, 
behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted 
them asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into 
heaven. 

And Elisha saw it. He looked on unafraid. And he cried, 
" My father! My father! the chariot of Israel, and the 
horsemen thereof!" And Elijah was seen no more; only 
his mantle had fallen from his shoulder. And Elisha took 
it up. 

So Elisha returned to Jericho alone. And the fifty 
prophets were still waiting on the bank and watching; and 
they said that they saw Elisha take Elijah's mantle, and 
wrap it together and smite the river. "And the water," 
they said, *'was divided hither and hither, and over he came 
on dry land." 

But for all that, they did not believe what Elisha told 
them. 

Elisha said, "My master has been taken from my side 
this day. We stood upon the mountain in the tempest, 
and behold a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and they car- 
ried him to heaven." 

"Oh, no!" said the prophets. "You lost him in the 
storm. What you saw was only a great flash of lightning. 
You imagined the horses and the chariot. Come, now, 

87 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



let us send men to find him. He is wandering upon some 
mountain, or in some valley." 

Elisha said, "You shall not send/' 

But they urged him till he was ashamed. They said, 
"You don't wish to have Elijah found. You wish to be 
the prophet in his place." 

At last he said, "Send them if you will." 

And they sent men to search the land. And for three days 
they looked high and they looked low; they called Elijah's 
name in all the woods and caves. But they did not find 
Elijah. 

Did I not tell you?" said Elisha. 



(( 



XX 




THE PROPHET AND THE PROPHETS 

NE time there was a prophet who stood alone, 
like Elijah, against four hundred prophets. 
But these four hundred were prophets of the 
Lord. The trouble with them was that they 
were mistaken. 
It happened in this way. 

Benhadad, king of Syria, had broken the promise which 
he made to Ahab. He had promised to restore to Israel the 
cities which his father had taken away. But he kept one 
of them. The city of Ramoth in Gilead he still held in his 
own possession. So Ahab decided to march his soldiers out, 
and take it. He gathered his army together at Samaria, his 
southern capital, and they all expected to be victorious; and 
so much the more because the king of Judah had come with 
his soldiers to fight on their side against the Syrians. 

But the king of Judah said, " Before we go to battle, let 
us ask the Lord what we ought to do. Let us hear what 
the prophets have to say." 
So the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, 

89 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



about four hundred men, and said, "Shall I go up against 
Ramoth-Gilead, or not?'* 

And they all said, "Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it 
into the hands of the king." 

But the king of Judah was not satisfied. It seemed to 
him that the prophets, instead of trying to find out what 
the will of the Lord was, were trying only to please the king. 
So he said, "Is there no other prophet of the Lord, that we 
might inquire of him?" 

And the king of Israel said to the king of Judah," There 
is one other man by whom we might inquire of the Lord, 
but I hate him. He never prophesies good for me, but al- 
ways evil. On the day when I made the treaty of peace 
with the king of Syria and spared his life, this man re- 
buked me to my face. He stopped me as I came from battle, 
and his head was bound up and bleeding as if he had been 
wounded, and I did not know him. And he told me a made- 
up story about losing a captive who had been entrusted to 
his charge; and I told him that he ought to lose his own life 
to pay for his neglect. And the man took off his bandages 
and there was the prophet, Micaiah, and he said, 'You, O 
king, have lost the captive, because you spared Benhadad ; 
now shall your life be for his life.' He is my enemy." 

And the king of Judah said, "Let not the king say so. 

90 



99 



THE PROPHET AND THE PROPHETS 

And the king of Israel called an officer and said to him, 
"Bring here Micaiah the prophet quickly." 

So the two kings sat by the gate of Samaria, each on his 
throne, wearing their royal robes, and all the prophets were 
assembled before them prophesying. Some cried this, and 
some cried that ; but all agreed that the kings would gain 
the victory. One of them had made him horns of iron, and 
he went back and forth before the kings holding out the 
horns and saying, ** Thus saith the Lord, with these horns 
shall you push the Syrians till you have destroyed them." 
*'Go up! Go up toRamoth! " cried the prophets, "for the 
Lord shall deliver the city into the king's hand." 

Meanwhile, the officer was gone to fetch Micaiah. "Come, 
now," said the friendly officer, "all the prophets with one 
consent are promising good fortune; speak as they do, 
promise success." 

But Micaiah said, "As the Lord liveth, what the Lord 
saith unto me, that will I speak." 

So Micaiah came to the king. 

And the king of Israel said, "Micaiah, shall we go to 
Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear?" 

Micaiah looked about at the four hundred prophets and 
smiled scornfully. " Oh, yes," he said, "you hear what these 
men say. Go on, and prosper. The Lord will give you Ra- 

91 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



moth-Gilead, and whatever else you may desire." But it 
was plain that Micaiah did not mean it. 

And the king said, "How many times shall I adjure you 
to tell me nothing but the truth? What does the Lord say?" 

And Micaiah answered, '*I had a vision. I saw all Israel 
scattered upon the hills as sheep that have no shepherd. 
And I heard the Lord say, 'These have no master; let them 
return every man to his house in peace.'" 

Then the king of Israel said to the king of Judah, " Did I 
not tell you that he would prophesy no good, but only evil ? " 

And Micaiah answered, "I had another vision. I saw the 
Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven 
standing by Him on His right hand and on His left. And 
the Lord said, *Who shall persuade Ahab that he may go 
up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead ? ' And one said on this man- 
ner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth 
a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, 'I will persuade 
him.' And the Lord said to him, 'How will you do it?' 
And he said, 'I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit 
in the mouth of all his prophets.' And the Lord said, 'You 
shall persuade him; go forth and do so.' Now, therefore, 
O king, these prophets have deceived you; they have spoken 
lies. You shall be defeated at Ramoth-Gilead, and shall 
die in battle." 



92 



THE PROPHET AND THE PROPHETS 



Then the man who had the horns came up, and struck 
Micaiah in the face, and said, "Which way went the spirit 
of the Lord from me to speak to you?" 

And Micaiah said, "Indeed, you shall see in the day when 
you flee from one room to another to hide yourself." 

But the king of Israel paid no heed to the warning of 
Micaiah. He was very angry. "Take Micaiah," he said, 
<* and carry him back to the governor of the city, and say, 
'Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed 
him with the bread of affliction, and with the water of 
affliction, till I return in peace.'" 

And Micaiah said, "If you return in peace, I am indeed 
mistaken." 

So the king of Israel and the king of Judah went up to 
battle. And the king of Israel said to the king of Judah, 
"You wear your robes of state, but I will disguise myself." 
So the fight began. 

And the king of Syria commanded his thirty and two 
captains, saying, " Fight neither with small nor great, save 
only with the king of Israel." And they attacked the king 
of Judah, for he was dressed in royal robes. But the king 
of Judah turned and fled, crying, "I am the king of Judah!" 
So they left off pursuing him. 

And a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the 

93 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



king of Israel between the joints of his armor, and he was 
wounded to the death. And he said to the driver of his 
chariot, "Turn about, and carry me out of the army. I am 
wounded grievously." And the battle increased, and the 
king was held up in his chariot against the Syrians, and as 
the sun was going down he died. And the blood ran out of 
his wound into the chariot. And toward sunset, a cry went 
through the army, "Every man to his own city! Every 
man to his own country!" 

So the day was lost. And the dead king was carried to 
Samaria. And they washed the chariot and the armor, and 
the dogs licked his blood, as the Lord had said by the mouth 
of Elijah. 



XXI 




•*MY HEAD! MY HEAD!" 

NE day, Elisha, being on a journey, came to 
a place called Shunem, and as he passed a 
woman's house, she asked him to come in, 
and he came in and dined with the woman 
and her husband. And the house became 
to him a home. Whenever he passed that way, he stopped 
there. 

And the woman said to her husband, "You see how this 
holy man of God goes back and forth upon his journeys by 
our house; let us make him a little room, and let us set there 
forhim a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick, 
and it shall be his room; it shall be the prophet's chamber. 
Whenever he comes by, he shall turn in thither." 

So Elisha, as he passed, turned into this pleasant room, 
and lodged there. 

One time, Elisha said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this 
Shunamite woman who is so hospitable to us. Tell her I 
would like to speak with her." 
And the woman came and stood before him. 

95 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



And Elisha said, ** You have been careful for us with all 
this care : what can I do for you ? Can I speak for you to the 
king, or to the commander of the army?" 

But the woman said, "I am content. I have abundance, 
and I dwell at peace among my own people." Soshewent out. 

And the prophet said to his servant, '* Surely, there is 
something I can do. There is some way in which I can show 
her kindness for all her thoughtfulness of me." 

And Gehazi said to Elisha,"' There is one thing which she 
desires. She has no child." 

And he said, "'Call her." 

And when he had called her, she stood in the door of the 
room. 

And Elisha said, ""Next year about this time, you shall 
have a son." 

And the woman thought that it was too good to be true. 
""No, my lord," she cried, ""O man of God, do not raise false 
hopes in the heart of your handmaid." 

But so it was. The next year, according to the prophet's 
word, God sent her a little son. 

But when the lad was grown so big and strong that he 
could help his father in the field, he went out one hot day 
among the reapers. And as he worked, he fell sick; and he 
cried to his father, ""My head! My head!" and his father 

96 



MY HEAD! MY HEAD! 



said, "Carry him to his mother." And they carried him 
to his mother, and he sat on her lap until noon, and then 
died. And she carried him up into the prophet's chamber, 
and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the 
door and went out. 

And she called to her husband, and said, *' Send me one of 
the young men, and one of the asses, that I may find the 
man of God." And she saddled an ass, and said to her ser- 
vant, "Drive on now fast, and do not stop until I tell 
you. 

And so she came to the man of God on Mount Carmel. 

And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar 
off, that he said, "Gehazi, yonder comes our friend, the 
good woman of Shunem. Run now, and meet her, and say, 
*Is anything the matter? Is your husband well? Is your 
child well?'" 

She said to Gehazi, "All is well." 

But when she came to Elisha, she fell down before him 
and caught him by the feet. And when Gehazi would have 
sent her away, Elisha said, "Let her alone, for her soul is 
grieved within her; and the Lord has hidden her trouble 
from me, and I know it not." 

And the woman said with tears, "My lord, did I not 
desire a son? Did I not say, ^Do not deceive me'? 

97 



lit 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



Then Elisha perceived what sorrow had befallen the 
woman, and he said to Gehazi, "Here is my staff, take it 
and go quickly. If you meet any one, do not speak to him; 
and if he speaks, do not answer. Make no delay. Lay my 
staff on the face of the child." 

So the servant went and laid the prophet's staff on the 
face of the child. But the lad did not stir. There was neither 
voice nor hearing. And he returned, and told his master. 
''The child," he said, "is not awaked." 

Then Elisha came himself, and there lay the child, as 
one dead, upon his bed. And he went in, and shut the door 
behind him. They were alone, the prophet and the child. 
And Elisha prayed for the child's life. And he lay upon the 
child, and put his mouth upon the child's mouth, and his 
eyes upon his eyes and his hands upon his hands. And as 
he lay upon him, the flesh of the lad grew warm. 

And Elisha went out, and waited, walking to and fro, and 
then again he lay upon the child. And the child sneezed 
seven times, and opened his eyes. 

And Elisha said to Gehazi, " Call the mother." And when 
she came, he said," Take up your son." And she bowed her- 
self to the ground, and thanked God and the prophet. And 
she took her son into her arms. 

Now it happened after this that there was a famine in 

98 




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MY HEAD! MY HEAD! 



the land, and the woman and her son went into the country 
of the Philistines, and while they were gone somebody took 
possession of their house and land. And one day, the king 
was talking with Gehazi about Elisha, and Gehazi was tell- 
ing the king about the recovery of the lad of Shunem. And 
at that moment, who should appear at the king's door but 
the woman and her son! They had come to ask the king 
to restore to them their land and house. And Gehazi said, 
"My lord, O king, there is the woman now, and her son 
with her." So the king commanded, saying, "Restore all 
that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day 
that she left the land, even until now." 



XXII 



THE CAPTAIN AND THE RIVER 




N the midst of the war between Syria and 
Israel, a band of Syrians, who were going 
about and plundering the country, carried 
away a company of captives, and among 
them was a little girl. She became a serv- 
ant in the house of a great Syrian captain whose name was 
Naaman; and she waited on Naaman's wife. 

Now Naaman was a great captain, and had led the armies 
of Syria to victory, but he had a grievous disease. He was 
a leper. And one day the little captive maid said to Naa- 
man's wife, "If only my master could see the prophet who 
lives in Samaria, he would be recovered of his leprosy; for 
the prophet makes sick people well." And this was told 
to Naaman, and he believed it. "Thus and thus," they 
told him, "said the maid that is of the land of Israel." 

There was peace at that time between the Syrians and 
the Israelites. So the king of Syria said, "Come, now, and 
I will send a letter to the king of Israel." And Naaman de- 
parted into Israel, taking with him ten talents of silver, 

lOO 



THE CAPTAIN AND THE RIVER 

and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten robes of state, 
to pay the prophet. And he carried the letter to the king 
of Israel, at Samaria. And the letter said, "When this 
letter comes to you, I have sent my servant Naaman the 
captain, that you may recover him of his leprosy." 

But when the king of Israel had read the letter, he was 
both amazed and troubled. "Am I a god," he said, " to kill 
and to make alive? Can I cure a man of leprosy? See, 
now, this is a plot against me. The king of Syria is seeking 
to make a quarrel with me!" 

Elisha the prophet heard of the letter which the king of 
Syria had sent to the king of Israel, and he said, "You do 
not need to be amazed or troubled. Send the man to me." 
So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and 
with his servants behind him, a glittering company, and 
he stood before the door of the house of Elisha. 

And Elisha sent out a messenger with this message, "Go 
wash in Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again 
to you as it was before, and you shall be clean." 

But Naaman was angry. "I expected," he said, "that 
he would come to receive me, and that he would stand and 
call upon the name of his god, Jehovah, and wave his hand 
over the place, and make me well. Are not Abana and Phar- 
par, the rivers of my own city of Damascus, better than all 

lOI 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be 
clean? '' And he turned, and went away in a rage. 

But the servants of Naaman were wiser than their mas- 
ter. They came near to him, and said, *'My father, if the 
prophet had bidden you do some great thing, would you 
not have done it? How much rather, then, when he says 
to you, 'Wash and be clean'?" 

And Naaman listened to his servants. Down he went to 
the river Jordan, and dipped himself in the river seven times 
according to the saying of the man of God. And behold, 
he was made well. His flesh came again like the flesh of a 
little child, and he was clean. 

So he returned from Jordan to Samaria, he and all his 
company, and came and stood before the man of God. And 
he said, '" Behold, now, I know that there is no god in all 
the earth but in Israel. Therefore, I pray, take a present 
of your servant." 

But Elisha said, "As the Lord liveth, before whom I 
stand, I will take nothing." 

And the captain urged him to take it, but he refused. 

Then said Naaman, "At least, let this be done. Let me 
have a load of the earth of this holy land, as much as 
two mules can carry; for the God of this land is now my 
God. From this time forth, I will offer neither burnt offer- 

102 



I 



THE CAPTAIN AND THE RIVER 

ing nor sacrifice to other gods, but only to the Lord Jeho- 
vah." 

And he added, "Only one thing troubles me. I am a serv- 
ant of the king of Syria, and when my master goes to wor- 
ship in the house of his god, Rimmon, he leans upon my 
arm, and he bows and I must bow also. When I bow down 
myself in the house of Rimmon, may the Lord pardon me." 

And EKsha answered, "Go in peace." 

So away went Naaman with his horses and his chariot, 
and his glittering retinue of servants, and two mules carried 
earth upon their backs so that Naaman even in Damascus 
might stand upon the soil of Israel. 

But when he had gone a little way, Gehazi, the servant of 
Elisha, said to himself, "Now my master has spared this 
Syrian captain in not receiving at his hands that which he 
brought, but, as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and 
take somewhat of him." 

So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And whenNaaman saw 
him running after him, he lighted down from his chariot to 
meet him, and said, "Is all well?" 

And Gehazi answered, "All is well. But my master has 
sent me, saying, * Behold, even now there have come to me 
from the hills of Ephraim two young prophets. Give them, 
I pray you, a talent of silver and two robes of state.'" 

103 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



And Naaman said, " Take two talents." And he urged 
him, and bound two talents in two bags with two robes of 
state, and laid them upon two of his servants, and they 
bare them before him. But before they came to Elisha, Ge- 
hazi stopped the servants, and took their burdens from their 
hands, and hid them. And he sent the men away. 

Then he went in, and stood before his master. And 
Elisha said, "Where do you come from, Gehazi?" 

And Gehazi answered, "I have not been away at all." 

And Elisha said, "Was I not with you in spirit when the 
man turned again from his chariot to meet you? Is this 
a time to receive money and to receive garments? Is it a 
time to buy olive-yards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, 
and menservants and maidservants? Are we to use the 
blessing of God to make us rich?" 

And as he spoke, the sickness of Naaman came to Gehazi, 
and he went out of Elisha's presence a leper as white as 
snow. 



XXIII 



THE SIEGE OF SAMARIA 




HERE was war again between Israel and 
Syria, and the city of Samaria was sur- 
rounded by the enemy. Nobody could go 
out; nobody could come in. Outside were 
farms and orchards, and food was growing 
out of the ground and on the trees; but also outside were 
the Syrians. So the markets of Samaria were empty, and 
the people were beginning to starve. 

One day, the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, 
and a woman cried to him in sore distress. *'Help! my lord 
O king," she said. 

The king said, "How can I help you? What is left on the 
barn floor, or in the wine press? Only the Lord can help 
you. But tell me, what ails you?" 

She said, " This woman" — pointing to her neighbour — 
*'this woman and I made an agreement. Yesterday, she 
said to me, 'Give me your little son that we may eat him 
to-day, and to-morrow we will eat my son. Why should we 
all die of hunger? So we boiled my son, and ate him. And 

105 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



to-day, I said to her, *Give me now your son that we may 
eat him"; and she has hid her son." 

Then the king of Israel laid hold upon his clothes and tore 
them, as men did in those days when they were in distress; 
and it was seen that the king's shirt was made of sack- 
cloth, such as men wore when they were in bitter affliction. 

And the king said, "God is our enemy, because Elisha 
the prophet is our enemy. Elisha could stop this famine, if 
he would. Why does he sit still while we suffer? God do so 
to me, and more also, if I let the head of Elisha stay on his 
shoulders till the sun go down this day.'* 

Now Elisha was in his house, and the elders of Israel 
were with him. And they heard a man running down the 
street. And Elisha said, "See, there comes a messenger 
from the king. That son of a murderer has sent to take 
away my head. Quick! shut the door, and hold it fast 
against him. Wait till the king comes himself." 

So they shut the door, and locked it, and kept the mes- 
senger out till the king should come. And while the mes- 
senger was trying to get in, and the friends of Elisha were 
holding the door against him, the king came. 

The king said, "All this evil is the Lord's doing. Why 
should I wait any longer for the Lord .? " 

And Elisha said, "Hear the word of the Lord. To-mor- 

io6 



THE SIEGE OF SAMARIA 



row at this hour shall wheat and barley be cheap in this 
city. A measure of fine flour shall be sold for a piece of sil- 
ver, and two measures of barley shall be sold for a piece of 
silver, in the gate of Samaria." 

And one of the royal officers, on whose arm the king 
leaned, scorned the word of Elisha. "Yes," he said, "we 
shall see this when the Lord makes windows in the sky!" 

Elisha said, " You shall see it with your eyes, but you shall 
not taste it with your lips." 

Now, as the sun began to go down that day, four men who 
were lepers sat by the city gate. And they said one to an- 
other, "Why sit we here until we die? If we say, 'We will 
enter into the city,' there is the famine in the city, and we 
shall die ; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now, there- 
fore, come, let us venture into the army of the Syrians. 
If they save us alive, we shall live ; and if they kill us, we 
shall but die. If we do nothing, we shall surely die." 

So they arose in the twilight to go to the camp of the 
Syrians. But when they came to the uttermost part of the 
camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no man there ! For 
the army of the Syrians had heard in the distance a noise 
as of the rattling of chariots, and a noise as of the prancing 
of horses, and a noise as of the marching of a great host ; 
and they said one to another, "Lo, the king of Israel has 

107 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



hired other kings to come and fight against us. Yonder 
come the kings of the Hittites, or the kings of Egypt ! " And 
there arose a mighty panic in the camp, and the Syrians 
fled in the twilight. They left their tents, and their horses 
and their asses, and the camp as it was, and fled for their 
lives. 

So the lepers came to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, 
and went into an empty tent, and found food there, and 
gold and silver. And they ate and drank, and carried thence 
silver and gold and costly clothing, and went and hid it. 
And they entered into another tent, and carried thence 
also, and went and hid it. 

At last, they said one to another, "We do not well. This 
is a day of good news, and we keep it to ourselves. If we 
wait till the morning light, we shall surely be punished for 
this. Let us go back, and tell the king." 

So they came in the middle of the night, and called to the 
watchman at the gate. They said, "We came to the camp 
of the Syrians, and behold, there was no man there, and 
no voice of any man, but horses tied and asses tied, and the 
tents as they were." 

And the watchman called, and told it in the palace. 

And the king arose in the night, and said to his servants, 

I will tell you now what the Syrians have done to us. 

io8 



(( 



THE SIEGE OF SAMARIA 



They know that we are hungry, and they have gone out 
of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, ' The 
men of Israel will come out into the empty camp, and we 
shall catch them alive, and get into the city/" 

And one of his servants answered, '*Let us send men and 
see. If the men live, then they live ; but if they die • — why, 
in a little while we shall all die." 

And the king said, " Go and see." 

So they took two men mounted on horses, and sent them 
out, and they followed the track of the fleeing Syrians from 
the camp even to the river; and all the way, from Samaria 
to the Jordan, the road was strewn with garments and ves- 
sels which the Syrians in their wild haste had thrown away. 

And the messengers returned and told the king. And the 
people went out in eager crowds, and plundered the camp 
of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a 
piece of silver, and two measures of barley were sold for a 
piece of silver, as the Lord had said by the mouth of Elisha. 

As for the officer of the king who said, "'Yes, we shall 
see this when the Lord makes windows in the sky," the 
king appointed him to keep the city gate; and in their haste 
the hungry people crowded upon him, and trod him under- 
foot. So he saw it with his eyes, but did not taste it with 
his lips. 



XXIV 



THE WILD RIDE OF JEHU 




MONG the captains of the army of Israel 
in the war against Ramoth-Gilead was one 
named Jehu. 

One day, Elisha called a young prophet, 
and said to him, " Take this flask of oil, and 
go to Ramoth-Gilead, and when you get there look for a 
captain by the name of Jehu. Make him come apart from 
his companions into an inner room. Then take the flask 
of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, * Thus saith the 
Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel.' Then open 
the door, and flee, and tarry not." 

So the young man went to Ramoth-Gilead, and the cap- 
tains were sitting together holding a conference of war. 
And the man said, "Captain, I have a message for you." 

And Jehu said, " We are all captains; which of us do you 
mean?" 
And the man said, "Captain, I mean you." 
So Jehu arose, and led the prophet up the outer stairs 
on which he and the captains had been sitting, into an inner 



no 



THE WILD RIDE OF JEHU 

room. And when they were alone the prophet poured the oil 
upon the captain's head, and said, '' Thus saith the Lord, 
I have anointed thee king over Israel." And he opened 
the door and fled. 

Then came Jehu back to his companions, and stood at 
the top of the stairs. And the captains said, "Is all well, 
Jehu? What was this mad fellow's message?" 

And Jehu said, *' You know already." 

"No," they said, "we know nothing about it. Tell us." 

And he answered, "Thus and thus did he speak to me 
saying, ' Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king 
over Israel.'" 

Then the men rose up in haste, with shouting, and they 
took every man his cloak, and put them on the top of the 
stairs, and set Jehu thereon, and blew with the trumpets, 
and cried, "Jehu is king! Jehu is king!" 

Now the king of Israel at that time was Joram, the son of 
Ahab. He had been wounded in the war, and was in his 
palace in Jezreel, his northern capital, to recover from his 
hurt. And Ahaziah, the king of Judah, had come to visit 
him. So the two kings were in Jezreel. 

And there stood a watchman on the tower of Jezreel 
and he saw a cloud of dust afar across the plain, as of men 
driving. And he called, and said, "I see a cloud of dust." 

Ill 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



And the king of Israel said, " Take a horseman, and send 
him to meet the men, and let him say *Is all well?'" 

So one went out on horseback to meet the men, and ^aid, 
" The king says, 'Is all well? Do you come in peace?'" 

And Jehu said, "What have you to do with peace? Turn 
you in behind me." 

The watchman said, '* The messenger comes to the men, 
but he comes not again. He rides with them." 

And the king sent out a second horseman, and he came 
to themand said, " The king says, * Do you come in peace ? " ' 

And Jehu answered, "What have you to do with peace? 
Turn you in behind me." 

The watchman told the king, saying, "The second mes- 
senger comes to the men, but he comes not again. He rides 
with them. So on they drive, and the driving is like the 
driving of Jehu, for he drives furiously." 

So the king of Israel said, "Make ready." And they 
made his chariot ready. And the two kings, the king of 
Israel and the king of Judah, went out, each in his chariot, 
against Jehu, and they met him close by Naboth's vine- 
yard. 

And when the king of Israel saw Jehu, he said, "Do you 
come in peace, Jehu?" 

And Jehu cried, " Peace? How can there be peace in the 

112 



THE WILD RIDE OF JEHU 

midst of the wickedness and the witchcraft of your mother 
Jezebel?" 

Then Joram turned to Ahaziah, and cried, "Treachery, 
Ahaziah!" And the kings turned to flee. And Jehu, with 
his full strength, drew a bow, and struck the king of Israel 
between his shoulders, so that the arrow went through his 
heart, and he sank down in his chariot. 

And Jehu said to one of his captains, "Take him up and 
cast him in Naboth's vineyard. Remember how you and I 
rode in the company of his father Ahab on the day when 
Elisha the prophet called down the curse of heaven. *Thus 
saith the Lord,' said Elisha; 'Yesterday I saw the blood of 
Naboth and his sons, — your blood and the blood of your 
sons shall answer for it in this place.' Now, therefore, take 
him and cast him into this place, as the Lord said." 

Meanwhile, Ahaziah, king of Judah, was fleeing for his 
life. And Jehu followed after him, and commanded his 
captains, "Him also! Smite him in his chariot." And the 
captains smote him, and his servants carried him in the 
chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him. 

The news of the killing of the kings came to the ears of 
Jezebel. The queen was in the palace; and when she knew 
that death was in store for her also, she adorned her face, 
and attired her hair, and dressed herself as for a state ocea- 
ns 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



sion. And she looked out of the window, and in came Jehu 
at the gate. 

And Jezebel said, "Had ever any man peace who had 
killed his king?" 

And Jehu lifted up his face to the window, and said, 
"Whoisonmyside? Who?" 

And two or three servants thrust out their heads, and 
looked at him. 

" Throw her down! " he said. 

And they seized the queen and threw her down, and Jehu 
trod upon her with his horse. 

Then he went in and ate and drank. And as he sat at 
the table, he said to his servants, "She was a bad woman, 
but she was the daughter of a king. Go now, and bury her." 
But they when came, behold, the dogs had eaten her, as 
Elisha said. 



XXV 




THE PRINCE'S GRANDMOTHER 

HE was a bad grandmother: we may as well 
say that at once. Her name was Athaliah, 
and she was the daughter of Jezebel. She 
was of her mother's religion, and when she 
was married to the king of Judah and went 
down to Jerusalem to live, the first thing which she did was 
to have a temple built for Baal. She had also her mother's 
disposition. She was strong and masterful and cruel. 

It seems a pleasant thing to belong to a royal family, and 
to live in a palace. Athaliah's grandfather had been king 
of Sidon; her father, Ahab, had been king of Israel; and, 
Joram, her husband, had been king of Judah. But those 
were hard times for kings; and they were even harder for 
the other members of royal families. For instance, when 
Joram came to the throne, he immediately killed all his 
brothers, so that none of them might conspire against him. 
Then, after he had been king a good while, an army of 
wild Arabs came up against Jerusalem, and broke into the 
Castle of Zion, and carried away all of Joram's treasures, 

"5 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



and also all his sons but one. Only his youngest son escaped. 
Then Joram fell sick, and so continued for two years in 
great pain, till he died. 

Thus Ahaziah, the youngest son of Joram and Athaliah, 
came to the throne; and Athaliah was the queen-mother. 
But one day there came back a chariot from Jezreel, driven 
by men weeping and lamenting, and in the chariot was the 
body of Ahaziah, killed by Jehu. So the queen-mother had 
a new grief added to the old ones. 

In the distress of this new grief, Athaliah did a dreadful 
thing; either because the affliction brought out all that was 
bad in her, or because it affected her mind. On the day 
when the chariot stopped at the palace door, and she came 
out and found that her son, the king, was dead, she killed 
all her grandchildren. All the boys and girls of Ahaziah's 
family, in the schoolroom, or out at play, or in the nursery 
— she had them caught and put to death. 

"Now," said Athaliah, "I am again the queen!" 

But one of the grandchildren, the youngest, a year old, 
escaped. He had an aunt, whose husband was Jehoiada, 
the chief priest ; and they lived next door to the palace, 
in the temple. And when the aunt of little Joash saw 
what was going on, she picked him up and carried him to 
her own room, and hid him. So the men with the swords 

ii6 



THE PRINCE'S GRANDMOTHER 

did not get him. Of this, the grandmother knew nothing. 
She supposed that the baby had gone the way of all the 
others. 

Then years passed, and years passed, till tlie little prince 
was at the age of seven. All this time his good aunt had 
taken care of him, and his grandmother had never seen him. 

Then his uncle, Jehoiada, felt that the time had come to 
put an end to the reign of the bad grandmother, and he 
began to tell the secret of the hidden prince to men whom 
he could trust. " The true king," he said, "is in my house. 
He is the boy Joash, Ahaziah's son." Thus he made ready. 

Now in the temple and in the palace, there were three 
guards of soldiers. And every Sabbath two of these com- 
panies were on duty in the temple, and one in the palace. 
And the custom was that in the afternoon, when the temple 
guards were relieved of their watch, the palace guard came 
over and took their places. So Jehoiada arranged that on a 
certain day, when the palace guard came to the temple, the 
temple guards should be kept standing. Thus there were 
no soldiers at that moment in the palace with the queen, 
but all the soldiers were in the temple with the priest. Then 
Jehoiada the priest called the captains. "Station your 
men," he said, "from the left corner of the temple, to the 
right corner of the temple, before the altar. Let them keep 

117 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



the three gates. Arm them with spears and shields from 
the armory of David. Let them have their weapons in 
their hands." 

And thus they stood; and Jehoiada brought out the little 
prince, the king's son; and he placed the crown upon his 
head, and the royal robes upon his shoulders. And the lad 
stood by the pillar, in the king's place, and looked as much 
like a king as his seven years would let him. And the 
soldiers shouted with a great shout and clapped their hands, 
and they cried, "Long Hve the king!" 

Now Athaliah in the palace heard the shouting and the 
handclapping in the temple, and over she came to see what 
it was all about. And there was the little king beside the 
pillar, and the captains with him, and the trumpeters blow- 
ing on their trumpets, and all the soldiers shouting, and the 
people coming in and blowing on more trumpets, and all 
shouting, *'God save the king!" 

Then the wicked grandmother laid hold upon her gown 
and tore it, and cried, " Treason ! Treason ! " 

And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains and said 
to them, " Bring her out between the ranks, and whoever 
follows her, slay him with the sword." But no one followed. 
So Athaliah's reign was over, and her grandson, little Joash, 
ruled in her stead, with his wise uncle, Jehoiada, to help him. 



XXVI 



THE SHEPHERD AND THE CITY 




EAR the little village of Tekoa, in the high- 
lands south of Jerusalem, there lived a shep- 
herd by the name of Amos. He had a 
flock of sheep, and he had also an orchard 
of sycamore trees out of whose dried fruit a 
kind of coarse bread was made. Neither of those posses- 
sions made him rich. He was a poor man, whose dwelling 
was in the rough fields, under the round roof of the sky. 

The work of tending sheep has this advantage : it gives 
the shepherd plenty of time to think. Amos had hardly 
anything else to do. The sheep needed only to be led occa- 
sionally to fresh pastures, and to be protected from lions 
and bears. Amos sat upon the ground beside them, and 
leaned his back against a rock, and looked up among 
the clouds by day and among the stars by night and 
thought. 

Sometimes a caravan came by; such as stopped in the old 
time on its way from Midian to Egypt, and carried off 
Joseph. The men of these caravans were traders, who 

119 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



brought the spices of the East to sell in the markets of the 
South. The road lay beside the fields of Amos, and when 
they stopped to give their camels drink from the well at 
which he watered the sheep, he talked with them. He asked 
them questions about their own land and the countries 
which they visited, and they gave him news of the great 
world. They told him what was going on in Damascus and 
in Tyre; they described what they had seen in Israel and 
in Judah; they brought him the gossip of the nations. After 
they were gone, and all was still again, he thought about 
these things for days. 

Sometimes he took the wool of his sheep, and went into 
cities to sell it. And he looked about him, noticing what 
buildings were there, and how the people dressed and be- 
haved themselves. He observed the rich and the poor. He 
visited the courts of law, and listened to the judges. He 
attended services in churches, and watched the priests. 
Then he came home to his sheep, and in the stillness of 
the wild pastures, he thought of what he had seen and 
heard. 

The more Amos learned about the world, the less he liked 
it. As he reflected upon it in his quiet days and nights, it 
seemed to him a bad world, filled with cruelty and greed. 
He hated it. He hated its kings and captains, and their 

1 20 



THE SHEPHERD AND THE CITY 

fierce fighting. He hated its rich merchants, who lived in 
splendid houses of hewn stone, and lay upon soft cushions 
on beds of ivory, and were entertained by skilful players on 
instruments of music, and drank wine out of bowls, while 
all the time they were cheating their neighbors, selling 
goods out of measures which were too small and in scales 
whose weights were too heavy, making men work long hours 
for little pay, charging high prices, afflicting the souls of the 
poor. He hated the priests, who busied themselves with 
beautiful services, and let this wickedness go on without a 
protest. 

As Amos thought upon these things, he became sure that 
God felt concerning all this just as he did. "God," he said 
to himself, "cannot bless any nation which disobeys His 
laws. Wickedness shall certainly be punished. These great 
cities, where judges are bribed to give wrong judgments, 
and the rich sell the poor into slavery, and luxury lives 
next door to misery, shall be overthrown. They shall be 
terribly destroyed unless they repent, and change their 
ways." 

It seemed to Amos very dreadful that people should be 
going on toward such a fate with nobody doing anything 
to prevent it. He felt like one who sees a boat drifting down 
a river, and knows that beyond are rapids and then a steep 

121 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



fall, and that the people are bound to be drowned unless 
they turn about and row upstream or to the shore. At last, 
he heard the voice of God in his soul telling him to cry aloud 
and give a warning. 

Then one day when Amos went to sell his wool in Bethel, 
in the place where the young prophet had cursed the altar 
and a lion had slain him, he told the city what was in 
his soul. 

They were having a religious festival that day, and there 
was a procession through the streets, and a splendid ser- 
vice was to be held in the great church. All the people 
were assembling. And suddenly, there jumped up on a high 
step a sunburned man, in the dress of a rough shepherd, 
and called in a voice at which everybody stopped and lis- 
tened. 

"God," he cried, "shall surely punish the Syrians, and 
burn the palaces of Benhadad, for all their cruelty to our 
brethren in Gilead!" 

And there was a clapping of hands, for the Israelites hated 
their old enemies, the Syrians. 

"God," cried the shepherd, "shall punish the men of 
Ammon, God shall punish the men of Moab, He shall send 
fire among them for all their wickedness!" 

Again there was a clapping of hands, and a sound of shout- 

122 



THE SHEPHERD AND THE CITY 

ing. Everybody approved, and hoped that the prophet 
spoke the truth. 

Then the speaker pointed his finger straight at the listen- 
ing people. ''God/' he cried, ''shall likewise punish you! 
You are God's own people, and yet thus and thus have you 
done against God's will. These services, such as you hold 
to-day, cannot save you. Not for such things does God 
care. What He wants of you is honesty and purity and 
brotherly kindness and a righteous life. Repent, and do that 
which is good, else you shall be destroyed with a great 
destruction." 

There was no clapping of hands, and no shouting of ap- 
proval now. Men were sent to tell the king. "A man," they 
said, " in shepherd's dress, a wild man from Judah, is preach- 
ing treason from the steps of the church. He says that you 
shall be slain with the sword, and that our nation shall be 
destroyed." 

And the priest came out. *'0 seer," he said, "go back to 
your land. There say what you will, and preach. You must 
not preach in this place. This is the king's residence, and 
this church is the king's sanctuary." 

And Amos answered, "I came not of my own accord, and 
the words which I speak are not my words. The Lord God 
called me as I watched the sheep, and said, 'Go warn my 

123 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



people Israel.' Thus saith the Lord, 'Unless you repent and 
change your ways, all this evil shall surely come upon you. 
But seek the Lord, and you shall live.'" 

Then he went out of the city, and returned to the quiet 
pastures, and sat among the flocks, and wrote his sermons 
in a book. 



XXVII 



THE PRODIGAL WIFE 




OSEA'S wife had gone away and left him. 
He was a grave man, who cared for serious 
things; she cared only for what she called 
a good time. He had been very patient; she 
■" had been very foolish. 
They had three little children, and the names which 
Hosea gave them show how sad he was about the condition 
of his home. The oldest was a boy, and his name was Jez- 
reel. His father named him for the place where Jehu the 
captain had killed the king. **The captain," he said to 
himself, "was false to his master whom he should have 
served and loved. I know what that means in my own 
experience." 

The second child was a girl, and the name which Hosea 
gave her means "No Pity." When people said, "Hosea, 
that is a strange name which you have given to your little 
daughter: why do you call her that?" He said, "Because 
God shall cease to pity this wicked nation." For Hosea felt 
as Amos had felt concerning the life of Israel. And he knew 

125 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



more about it than Amos could have known, because he 
lived in the midst of it. But the name had another mean- 
ing also. Hosea said to himself, "How can I look any longer 
with pity and forgiveness upon the conduct of my wife? " 

Then when a little boy was born, Hosea called him by 
a name which means "Not My people." And again the 
neighbors wondered about it. "Hosea," they said, "this is 
the queerest name we ever heard. Why don't you call 
your boys Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, or some respect- 
able name like other folks .f* What do you mean by 'Not My 
People ' ? " He said, " The time approaches when the Lord 
shall say to this nation, 'You were my people, but now you 
are my people no longer, on account of your sins.'" But 
here, again, Hosea was thinking also of his own home. He 
was saying to himself, "Must I not say to my wife, 'She 
is not my wife'? She has separated herself from me by her 
wicked ways." 

Then she went away and left him. And months passed, 
and months passed, and she did not come back. Sometimes 
he heard about her, but all that he heard was bad. She was 
in evil company. Then he learned that her first bad friends 
had forsaken her, and that she was now with those who were 
worse; and then with those who were worse still. He heard 
that she had lost her beauty and her gayety, and looked old 

126 



THE PRODIGAL WIFE 



and sick and miserable. At last somebody came to him and 
said, *'Hosea, I saw your wife this morning in the slave 
market. She has been deserted by all her companions, and 
the last of them is trying to sell her as a slave." 

Immediately, Hosea went and bought her. He paid fifteen 
pieces of silver, and several bushels of barley. He took her 
home. There they sat down where they had once been 
happy, in the home which she had spoiled and abandoned. 
And the little children came to their mother and loved her; 
and Hosea loved her still, in spite of all that had happened. 

The next day, Hosea called his neighbors together. 
"Friends," he said, "you know about the trouble in my 
family. Everybody knows it. And you have perhaps heard 
that I have taken my wife back. I wish to say a word to you. 

"I have been taught a great truth, which, as I think upon 
it, seems to me almost the greatest truth there is. I have 
come to see that God is just as good as we are. It seems a 
strange thing to say, but we have not believed it. We have 
believed that the love of God is less constant than our own 
love, and that He is less pitiful and forgiving than we are. 
Friends, that is not so. Even as I love my wife in spite of 
all her sin, so does God love His people in spite of all their 
wickedness. The love of God is like the love of a mother for 
her child; it is like the love of a faithful husband for his 

127 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



wife. God is greatly displeased at us, and He will surely 
let us suffer the pains and punishments which we deserve. 
But through it all, He loves us. When we return to Him in 
sorrow. He will receive us. 

" Friends, I have changed the names which I have given 
to two of my children. My little daughter whom I called 
*No Pity,* I now call 'Pity,' in remembrance of the great 
mercies of God. And my little son whom I named *Not My 
People,' I now name 'My People,' for we are still God's 
people, and He is still our God." 

Then Hosea went back into the house, and shut the door, 
and, like Amos, wrote a book. 



XXVIII 



WHISTLING FOR THE BEES 




HERE was once a lad who bore the strange 
name of "Destruction and Deliverance." 
In the Hebrew language, which he and all 
his neighbors spoke, the name was Shear- 
Jashub ; but that is what it means. 
His father, Isaiah, had given him this name in order that 
he might be a kind of living motto. When anybody said, 
"What is your name?" and the lad replied, "Destruction 
and Deliverance," the questioner would always ask another 
question. He would say, "Where did you get such an extra- 
ordinary name as that?" And the boy would answer, "It 
is the subject of one of my father's sermons. My father 
says that this nation shall be destroyed but delivered." 

One day Isaiah went to meet the king; and he took De- 
struction and Deliverance with him. The king of Judah at 
that time was Ahaz. Isaiah found him in the Fuller's Field, 
where, long before, the prophet Nathan had interrupted 
the conspiracy of Adonijah. There was Gihon, the Foun- 
tain, and, near by, beside the Serpent's Rock, was the 

129 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



Dragon's Well. Out of these springs the Castle of Zionwas 
supplied with water. The king had gone to see if there was 
water enough to last through a long siege. For the news 
had come that the enemies were on the way. 

The long war between Israel and Syria had at last come to 
an end, and the two had united their forces in one army 
to fight the king of Judah. The reason was this: The two 
nations had become aware of a great danger. In the east, 
with Nineveh for their capital, lived the Assyrians. They 
were not contented with the high mountains, and the wide 
plains, and the strong cities of their own land ; they proposed 
to own the world. So they reached out towards the sea. 
The first nation on their way was the kingdom of Syria, 
and the next nation was the kingdom of Israel. So the two 
nations said, one to another, "We must stand together, 
and we must get the kingdom of Judah to stand with us." 

But Ahaz, king of Judah, refused to join them. So the 
kings of Israel and Syria sent him word saying, "We are 
coming down to take your crown from off your head, and to 
put it on the head of one who will join hands with us against 
the Assyrians." And down they came. 

Thus it was that the prophet, with his little son holding 
his hand, found the king of Judah measuring the supply of 
water. Ahaz was in deep distress. He could see nothing 

130 



WHISTLING FOR THE BEES 

before him but disaster. His heart was moved, and the 
hearts of his people, as the trees in the wood are moved with 
the wind. They trembled like leaves. The king was afraid 
of his two neighbors who were coming to attack him; he was 
still more afraid to oppose Assyria. 

Isaiah's plan was to stand still. He believed that Syria 
and Israel were not strong enough to hurt Judah. He be- 
lieved also that the less Judah had to do with Assyria the 
better. To call the Assyrians to help Judah was as foolish 
as for a mouse to call a cat to help him against another 
mouse : the cat would surely eat them both. 

Thus they talked, the prophet and the king, and the lad 
beheved. 

Some things were hard for him to understand. Isaiah 
said, "A child shall be born whom they will name Emmanuel 
— *God is with us.' He shall find nothing to eat but cheese 
and honey, for all the cornfields and the vineyards shall be 
destroyed, and the people shall live on the milk of goats 
and on the honey of wild bees in the rocks. And before he 
knows the difference between good and bad, the two kings 
whom you dread shall be defeated." 

The boy could not see why the child should be called by 
so great a name, unless his father meant that, even in that 
affliction, God would still be with them. He thought of his 

131 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



own name, Destruction and Deliverance, and wondered 
what destruction his father meant, and what deliver- 
ance. 

But other things were plain. Isaiah said, "Ahaz, do not 
be afraid of Israel and Syria. They cannot harm you. 
There is no more power left in them than there is flame 
in two smoking sticks of wood." The boy had often seen 
pieces of wood taken from the fire, and the flame that was 
in them flickered and went out, and there was nothing but 
ashes. 

And Isaiah said, " Ahaz, if you are afraid of Israel and 
Syria, and do not trust in the Lord, but call the Assyrians 
to defend you, it will be like whistling for the bees of As- 
syria. And they shall come, and shall settle down in all the 
valleys, and upon all the rocks, and on all the bushes, and 
on all the pastures." The boy understood that his father 
meant the swarms of Assyrian soldiers, with swords sharp 
as the stings of bees. 

To all this, Ahaz paid no heed. And Isaiah took the boy 
and went away in anger and in sorrow. 

Ahaz said, "The Lord has forsaken me; I will get the 
help of other gods." He prayed to Moloch. He took his 
son, and kindled a fierce fire before the image of Moloch, 
and passed him through it as a sacrifice. But Moloch was 

132 



WHISTLING FOR THE BEES 

as deaf and dumb as the Baal to whom the priests prayed on 
Carmel. The enemy drew near. 

Then Ahaz sent to Assyria. "Come," he said, "and de- 
fend me from Syria and Israel, and I will give you money." 
And he took gold and silver from the palace and the temple, 
and sent it as a present to the Assyrian king. 

Thus the Lord, by the lips of Ahaz, whistled for the bees. 
The Assyrians came, and the invading armies of Syria and 
Israel fled before them. They took possession of Damascus, 
and smote the Syrians so that they were no more a nation. 
They became the masters of Israel. They became the 
masters of Judah also. 



XXIX 



THE GOD OF THE LAND 




HENEVER they went out in the street, a 
lion met them. And every day there were 
more lions than there had been the day be- 
fore. They came in from the fields and 
woods by two and threes. They roared at 
night, so loud that the people could not sleep for fear. There 
was a plague of lions. 
The lions came in because the walls were broken down. 
The Assyrians whom Ahaz had invited had come in their 
might. The men of Israel, who had been warned by Amos 
and Hosea, had paid no attention to the warning. They had 
gone on in their sins. Thus they had destroyed the strength 
of the nation, and the Assyrians had conquered them. The 
Lord had whistled for the bees, and the Assyrians in swarms, 
stinging as they came, had settled down upon the land. 

The walls of the city of Samaria were overthrown. Out- 
side the town, the farms and orchards looked as if they had 
been washed by floods and swept by cyclones; for the in- 
vaders had had their camp there for three years. Within 

134 



THE GOD OF THE LAND 



the town, the doors of all the houses had been battered in, 
and whatever was of any value had been carried out. Then 
the lions came. 

Most of the people who were living at that time in Sa- 
maria were Assyrians. Not only had the walls been broken 
and the houses plundered, but most of the former inhabitants 
had been carried off. In long processions, thousands upon 
thousands, princes and merchants, rich and poor, fathers 
and mothers with their little children, the Israelites had 
been marched by soldiers out of their own land, which they 
were never to see again, into Assyria. And the Assyrian 
settlers had been sent to take their places. 

Thus the people who saw a lion whenever they looked out 
of a window, and were afraid to go outdoors, were most of 
them Assyrians. They had moved into the empty houses, 
and were trying to rebuild the shattered city. But the lions 
stopped them. 

They said, "What is the matter? Why do these wild beasts 
attack us?" 

And somebody answered, "It is because we do not wor- 
ship the god of the land. We have, indeed, brought our own 
gods with us, Adrammelech and Anammelech, and Nergal 
and Nibhaz. We have set up their images in the holy places. 
But the god of this land we know not. We have not even 

135 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



heard his name. There was a god, for we have found his 
ruined temples, but there are no priests left to tell us how 
to pray to him. And now in his displeasure he has sent these 
lions." For they believed that every country had its own 
god, and every nation its own religion. 

Then they sent men to Assyria to the king their master. 
And the men said, "O king, yonder in the kingdom of Israel 
which you have conquered, and in the city of Samaria 
which you have captured, your people are beset with lions. 
We have no peace. We hardly dare to stir out of our houses, 
lest the lions eat us. And this, O king, is because we do not 
know the god of the land. Send back, we pray, a priest of 
the religion of Israel that he may teach us, and this plague 
may cease." 

So the king of Assyria sent a priest of the religion of Is- 
rael, and he taught them the worship of the Lord God. And 
the Assyrians who had settled in Samaria, and the Jews 
who had escaped when their neighbors were carried off, said 
their prayers together, and were called Samaritans. 

As for the lions, little more was heard of them; espe- 
cially after the city wall was built again. 



XXX 



THE WOLF AND THE FOLD 




HE Fuller's Field was filled with men. They 
wore strange clothes, and the language which 
they spoke was strange. The top of the 
city wall was crowded with people of Jerusa- 
lem looking down at them, some in curiosity, 
some in fear, and some in anger. 

The strangers stood outside the wall in the valley, and 
called loudly for the king. "We would see the king!" they 
said. "We would speak with Hezekiah, king of Judah." 

So the word was brought to Hezekiah. " O King," 
cried the messenger, "the Assyrians have come again. 
Their army covers the Philistine plains. They are be- 
sieging Lachish, and they threaten to besiege us next. 
Their ambassadors stand in the Fuller's Field and demand 
the surrender of the city. They call for you." 

And Hezekiah said, "What can I do more? I have paid 
the king of Assyria a great sum for the purchase of peace. 
I have given him all the silver that was in the treasury, and 
the golden ornaments of the Temple of the Lord. What does 

137 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



he ask for now? Go, hear what his messengers have come 
to say." 

Thus the officers of the king of Judah stood upon the wall 
above, and the officers of the king of Assyria stood beside the 
wall below. 

The ambassadors said, " Thus saith the great king, the 
king of Assyria, ' Who is there that can help you? ' You say, 
*I have strength for the war.' Where is your strength? Do 
you put your trust in the Lord your God? He has forsaken 
you. It is even he who said to me, *Go up against this land, 
and destroy it.'" 

And the officers of Judah interrupted the speaker. 
"Speak," they said, "in your own language, for we under- 
stand it. Do not you say such words as these in the Jews' 
language, in the hearing of these people on the wall." 

But the Assyrian cried in a louder voice than before, 
and in the language which all the people understood. 

"Listen!" he said; "listen, all of you, to the message of 
the great king, the king of Assyria." 

" Sennacherib, king of Assyria, warns you not to trust 
in Hezekiah, king of Judah. He cannot deliver you out of 
my hand. Make your peace with me, and come over to me. 
I will take you to a pleasant land. There shall each of you 
eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink the 

138 




THE WOLF AND THE FOLD 

water of his own well. It is a land like your own land, full 
of corn and wine, and bread and vineyards, and olive 
trees and honey. 

"Do not believe Hezekiah when he says that the Lord 
will save you. What God of all the nations has been able 
to deliver his people out of my hand? I came to the king- 
dom of Syria and conquered it; its capital city, Damascus, 
I destroyed. I came to the kingdom of Israel and conquered 
it ; its capital city, Samaria, I overthrew. So it shall be here. 
The kingdom of Judah will I conquer, and your capital 
city, Jerusalem, will I bring down to the ground. I have 
robbed the treasuries of all the nations. I have gathered 
their riches as one gathers eggs out of a bird's nest; not one 
fluttered a wing, not one dared to open its mouth and peep. 
No power in heaven or on earth can hinder me. No man 
nor God can stop me." 

Thus spoke the messenger of the king of Assyria, and he 
delivered a letter from his master to King Hezekiah in 
which all these things, and more also, were written. And the 
officers of the king took the letter in silence. They were 
frightened dumb. They answered not a word. Pale and 
trembling they carried the letter to the king. 

And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the mes- 
sengers and read it ; and Hezekiah went up into the house 

139 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. And there he 
prayed. " O Lord, Thou art the God, even Thou alone of all 
the kingdoms of the earth. Save us now out of the hands of 
Sennacherib." 

And he sent word of all these things to Isaiah, the prophet. 

So the messengers of the king came to the prophet. And 
they said, "Thus saith the king, *This is a day of trouble 
and destruction. What can be done? Shall we surrender to 
this terrible invader,orwillGod help us? Speak toGod. Lift 
up your prayer for the Castle of Zion in this sore distress.'" 

And Isaiah said to them, " Take this answer to your 
master. Thus saith the Lord, *The Assyrian speaks great 
words. "I come," he says, "with the multitude of my char- 
iots; I have laid waste walled cities into heaps of ruins."' 
Thus saith the Lord, 'AH your might, O King of Assyria, is 
from me. You have done what I have permitted you to do. 
Now you come, like a wild beast, roaring and raging against 
me. Behold, I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle 
in your lips, and will turn you back.' 

" Thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, 
*He shall not come into this city. Not a shield shall he lift 
up against it ; not an arrow shall he shoot. By the way that 
he came, by the same shall he return, and the city shall be 
safe.'" 

140 



THE WOLF AND THE FOLD 

Thus did Isaiah answer the king, and thus did the king 
answer the Assyrian ambassadors. And back they went 
to give the message to Sennacherib. And as they came in 
sight of the Assyrian camp at Lachish, behold, the Assyrian 
army was already on the march. A plague had broken out 
among the soldiers, and they were returning to their own 
land in haste. 

Thus the wolf came against the fold, and the Lord, the 
Shepherd of Israel, drove him away. 



XXXI 




THE BURNED BOOK 

HE preacher had a congregation of one; but 
that made no difference to him. He preached 
straight on, first one sermon, and then an- 
other, and then still another. And the con- 
gregation listened with unfailing interest, 
and took notes. 

The congregation's name was Baruch. He was secretary 
to the preacher, whose name was Jeremiah. A blank book 
lay on the table before him, and in it he wrote with pen and 
ink just what Jeremiah said. 

The preacher's text was a great battle. Far in the north, 
at Carchemish on the river Euphrates, two ancient nations 
had fought for the supremacy of the world. 

On one side were the Egyptians. They had marched up 
past Jerusalem, and had taken from Assyria all the lands be- 
tween the Jordan and the sea. Josiah, king of Judah, had 
tried in vain to stop them, and had fallen on the field of 
battle. The kingdom of Judah had thus come under the 
rule of Egypt. 

142 



THE BURNED BOOK 



On the other side were the Chaldeans. They had marched 
up from Babylon, their capital, and had hurled their armies 
against the walls of Nineveh. Taking that city, the greatest 
in the world, they had overthrown the empire of the As- 
syrians. Thus that mighty nation, which had conquered and 
destroyed the kingdom of Syria and the kingdom of Judah, 
and had besieged Jerusalem, came to an end. 

The two victorious armies, Chaldean and Egyptian, 
met ; and the Chaldeans won the day. Being thus the mas- 
ters of the world, they were the masters of the kingdom of 
Judah. 

Now it had been long the conviction of Jeremiah that 
Jerusalem must be destroyed. He had said so publicly and 
often, and the people hated him for saying it. 

One time, he had called the priests around him, and taking 
a bottle had dropped it on a rock, and had said, " Thus saith 
the Lord, *Even so will I break this people and this city."* 
And one of the priests had struck him in the face, and had 
put him in the stocks. 

Another time, he had stood in the gate of the Temple, 
and cried aloud to all the people, " Thus saith the Lord, 
* Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell 
in this place ; but if you go on still in your wickedness, and 
steal and murder and commit adultery, I will cast you out 

143 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



of my sight. This holy place, this holy city, shall be de- 
stroyed, and the land shall become a desolate wilder- 
ness/" 

They tried to kill him. They put him on trial for high 
treason. 

The priests said to the princes, " This man must be put 
to death. You have heard with your own ears what he has 
said against the Temple and against the city." 

But Jeremiah answered, "I have spoken only what the 
Lord gave me to speak. And listen now! I say it over again. 
Amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of 
God; He may repent Him of the evil which He has pro- 
nounced against you. As for me, behold, I am in your hand. 
Do with me as it seems good to you. But know for certain 
that if you put me to death you shall surely bring innocent 
blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon all 
this nation." 

And the princes said to the priests, " This man must not 
be punished, for he has spoken to us in the name of the 
Lord our God." 

So Jeremiah was released. But the people went on, bad 
as ever. 

Now that the battle was fought, and the Chaldeans were 
the masters of the world, Jeremiah was more sure than ever. 

144 



THE BURNED BOOK 



"This city," he said, "shall be destroyed, and the Chal- 
deans shall destroy it." 

Then he called Baruch, and gave him ink and pen and 
paper, and repeated to him his warning sermons, the Ser- 
mon of the Bottle, and the Sermon at the Gate, and many 
more. And Baruch wrote them down. "Perhaps," said 
Jeremiah, "the kingdom of Judah may yet give heed to 
all the evil which the Lord proposes to do to this people, 
and they may return each from his evil way, that the Lord 
may forgive their iniquity and their sin." 

So the blank pages of the book were filled. Then said 
Jeremiah, " Baruch, I cannot go into the Temple. You go, 
and read what you have written." And Baruch did as 
Jeremiah conmianded him. It was a fast-day, and the 
Temple was filled with people, and Baruch stood at one of 
the gates, and read out of his book to all who stopped and 
listened. 

Now the princes were sitting together in the royal palace, 
and when they heard what was being done, they sent for 
Baruch. " Sit down now," they said, "and read this in our 
hearing." 

So he sat down and read, and when they had heard from 
beginning to end they were afraid, and said to Baruch, 
"We must surely tell the king of all these words." 

145 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



And they asked Baruch, saying, ''Tell us now, how did 
you write all these words?" 

And Baruch answered, "He pronounced all these words 
unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the 
book." 

Then the princes said to Baruch, "You and Jeremiah go 
and hide yourselves, and let no man know where you are." 

And they told the king. And Jehoiachin the king sent for 
the book, and one began to read it to him. 

Now the king was sitting in his winter-house, and there 
was a fire burning on the hearth before him. He listened ; 
at first with contempt, then with impatience, and then 
with great anger. At last, he rose up, after two or three 
pages had been read, and took the book out of the hand of 
the reader, and cut it in pieces with his penknife, and threw 
it piece by piece into the fire that was on the hearth, till it 
was all burned. 

But the king and his servants were neither alarmed nor re- 
pentant. They went on still in their wicked way. The king 
commanded men to arrest Baruch and Jeremiah, but they 
could not find them. Then Jeremiah took another book and 
gave it to Baruch; and again the preacher preached to the 
congregation of one. He repeated all the former sermons 
and added others. And Baruch wrote them word for word- 



XXXII 
THE CAPTURE OF THE CASTLE 




OR the first time in more than a year, the 
city gates were opened, and the creaking of 
their rusty hinges was like the crying of 
children. 
In the city, during that hard year, child- 
ren had cried for hunger. The Chaldeans had encamped 
about Samaria. The gates were shut ; no farmers could come 
in with food. But now, the Egyptians had attacked the 
Chaldeans in the rear, and the Chaldeans had gone to 
chase them home. 

The gates being open, and men continually going out and 
coming in, Jeremiah said to himself, "I will go and look at 
my farm." For during the siege, while the enemy occupied 
all the country roundabout, Jeremiah had done a singular 
thing: he had bought a farm. The Chaldeans were en- 
camped upon the place, and the prophet was saying every 
day, "The Chaldeans shall take this city and destroy it." 
It seemed impossible that he could ever occupy the farm; 
and if he ever did, people wondered what he would do with 

147 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



it, for, while he knew how to handle pens and ink, he knew 
nothing whatever about ploughs or pnining-hooks. But 
Jeremiah's reason for buying the farm was this. He be- 
lieved that destruction was certain, but he believed also that 
deliverance would follow it. The people of Judah must be 
carried away, as the people of Israel had been, but they 
would surely return. So he bought the farm as an act of 
faith. 

"Now," he said, "I will go and look at it. I will see what 
the Chaldeans have done to my vines and fig trees." 

But at the gate, the captain of the guard arrested him. 
He laid hold on Jeremiah. "You are a deserter," he said; 
"you are going over to the Chaldeans. You have been on 
their side all along, telling us to surrender the city to them. 
Now you are going to get your reward. You are starting out 
to join the enemy." 

"It is false," said Jeremiah. "I have bought a farm, and 
I am on my way to look at it. I am not going over to the 
Chaldeans." 

But the captain paid no heed to anything that Jeremiah 
said. They brought him to the princes, and the princes had 
him beaten and put in prison. 

The king, however, was Jeremiah's friend. He was a 
weak king, who was almost as much afraid of the princes 

148 



THE CAPTURE OF THE CASTLE 

as he was of the Chaldeans. He dared not favor Jeremiah 
publicly. But he summoned him in secret to the palace. 
The king said, "Jeremiah, is there any word from the 
Lord?" 

Jeremiah said, "There is. The Lord says, 'Do not think 
that the Chaldeans will not return to fight against the city. 
They will surely come back, and fight against it, and take 
it, and burn it." And you, O king, shall be delivered into the 
hand of the king of Babylon." Moreover, Jeremiah said, 
"What crime have I committed that I am put in prison? 
Let me not be taken back there, lest I die." 

So the king delivered the prophet from the prison, but 
kept him under guard, and every day they gave him a loaf 
of bread from the baker's street until all the bread in the 
city was gone. Nevertheless, Jeremiah said continually to 
the soldiers in the court of the guard, "This city shall surely 
be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon. 
They who would save their lives, let them desert to the 
enemy. They who stay die by the sword, by the famine, and 
by the plague." 

And the princes heard that he said these things to the 
soldiers. 

So the princes said to the king, "This man must be put 
to death. He weakens the courage of the army and of all 

149 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



the people by such words. This man seeks not our welfare 
but our hurt." 

And the weak king answered, "He is in your hands. Do 
what you will with him." 

Then they took Jeremiah and let him down with cords 
into a deep well. There was no water in the well, only deep 
mud in the bottom, and Jeremiah sank in the mire. 

Then went a friend of Jeremiah to the king, and told him 
what was done. "Jeremiah has done no wrong," he said, 
"and now, O king, he dies!" And the king said, " Go, take 
him up." And the friend took men with him, and rags 
and worn-out garments; and they let down the rags and 
garments to the prophet in the bottom of the well, and 
called down to him, and said, "Jeremiah, put these rags and 
old clothes under your arms under the cords." And Jere- 
miah did so, and they pulled him up. 

And the king summoned him in secret to the Temple ; and 
the king said, "Jeremiah, I would like to ask you something. 
Tell me, and hide nothing from me." 

And Jeremiah said, "If I tell you, will you promise not to 
have me put to death?" 

The king said, "As the Lord liveth, in whom we live, I 
will not put you to death; neither will I give you into the 
hands of the men who seek your life.' 

150 



» 



THE CAPTURE OF THE CASTLE 

And Jeremiah answered the king, " Thus saith the Lord, 
* If you surrender to the king of Babylon, you shall be saved, 
and the city shall not be burned. But if you do not surren- 
der, then shall the Chaldeans take the city and destroy it/" 

The king said, "I am afraid to surrender. My own peo- 
ple will kill me." 

So the siege continued. Everyday the Jews grew weaker, 
and the Chaldeans grew stronger. At last, the battering- 
rams of the Chaldeans broke the wall, and in came the cap- 
tains and the soldiers. And the king and his officers opened 
a gate on the other side of the city, and fled for their lives. 
But the Chaldeans overtook them. 

Thus the Castle of Zion was captured. And the Chalde- 
ans burned the palace and the Temple and the houses. And 
they took the pillars of brass which stood before the Temple, 
and the brazen sea, and broke them in pieces to carry them 
to Babylon. All the vessels of brass and of silver and of 
gold, they took away. And the people they marched in long 
processions, the king and the princes and the priests, the 
rich and the poor, fathers and mothers and their little chil- 
dren, out of Judah and over the Jordan and across the 
deserts to the land of Babylon. 




XXXIII 

MOVING PICTURES 

HEN the procession of exiles from Jerusa- 
lem came to the land of Babylon, they were 
met by other exiles who were there already. 
These men had been taken captives by the 
Chaldeans ten years before. Out they came 
along the road with lamentation and mourning to meet 
their brethren. 

"Can it be true?" they cried. *'Can it be true that our 
holy city has been captured and destroyed? Has the king- 
dom of Judah come to an end? Is the Temple of God 
burned? Do the high walls of the Castle of Zion lie upon 
the ground? Ezekiel told us that all this must come to pass, 
but we could not believe him." 

For while Jeremiah, in Jerusalem, had been declaring 
that the Chaldeans would surely take the city, Ezekiel had 
been saying the same thing in the land of Babylon. He had 
been preaching it in sermons : he had been showing it in pic- 
tures. 
Sometimes he made the pictures with his hands, while 

152 



MOVING PICTURES 



the people stood and watched him. Sometimes he described 
the pictures which he had seen in dreams. 

One day he took a large flat brick, such as the Chaldeans 
used to write on, and drew upon it a plan of Jerusalem, 
There were the walls and the streets, and the Temple in the 
midst ; and outside were the tents of the enemy, and their 
battering-rams. And Ezekiel held a great piece of sheet 
iron between him and the picture of the city. And when the 
people said, "What does this mean, Ezekiel?" he answered, 
^*Thus shall Jerusalem be besieged, and thus shall the Lord 
make a wall of iron between Him and His people. They 
shall be in distress, and He will not help them." 

One day he said, "I saw the Temple filled with idols. All 
the walls of the holy place were painted over with the forms 
of beasts and snakes, creeping and crawling things. And 
before these images stood men of Judah with censers in 
their hands, and a thick cloud of incense rose as they wor- 
shipped these idols in the house of God. And outside were 
women weeping as they prayed to the God of the Spring. 
And at the door of the Temple were men with their backs to 
the altar of the Lord, worshipping the sun. And a voice 
called for the destroyers, and they came with weapons in 
their hands, and began at the Temple and went through 
all the city, slaying as they went." 

153 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



"Jerusalem," said Ezekiel, "has forsaken God; and God 
has forsaken Jerusalem." 

Again he said, "I saw the Temple filled with cloud, and in 
the cloud a fire flashing like lightning, and in the fire the 
likeness of a throne, and upon the throne the brightness of 
the glory of the Lord. And the throne had whirling wheels, 
and beside the wheels were living creatures, with wings, and 
the noise of their wings was like the noise of great waters, 
like the noise of an army. And the wheels whirled, and the 
living creatures lifted up their wings, and the throne was 
carried out of the Temple toward the east." 

The people said, "What does this mean, Ezekiel?" 

And he answered, " The Lord has departed from Jerusa- 
lem, and has come to dwell with us here, in the east." 

Thus had Ezekiel taught the people in the land of Baby- 
Ion, telling them not to expect to return to their own coun- 
try, and declaring again and again, like Jeremiah, that 
Jerusalem must be destroyed. Then had come one day a 
messenger from Judah to Babylon, at the sight of whom, as 
he came riding down the road, the hearts of the exiles sank 
within them. 

"All is lost ! " he cried. " The king of Babylon has broken 
down the Temple of the Lord ; and the holy place has he 
defiled, and made Jerusalem a heap of stones. The smoke 

154 



MOVING PICTURES 



of the burning city rises to the clouds, and behind me, weep- 
ing and lamenting, come the people into exile." 

Then Ezekiel began to comfort his people. They settled 
down together by the waters of Babylon, the new exiles and 
the old, and wept as they remembered Zion. But Ezekiel 
said, "After destruction comes deliverance, after repentance 
comes forgiveness. Turn now from your sins which have 
displeased God, put away your idols. God will bless you. 
You shall be brought back to your own land." 

One day he said, "As I dreamed, I was in the midst of a 
valley. There had been a fearful battle fought there in some 
forgotten war; and the valley was strewn with the dry bones 
of dead men. The whole ground was covered with them, 
and they were very dry. And the Lord said, 'Son of man, 
can these bones live?' 

"And I answered, *0 Lord, thou alone knowest.' 

"And He said, 'Speak now to these bones, and say to 
them, O dry bones, hear the words of the Lord. Thus saith 
the Lord, I will put breath into you that ye may live. I will 
put sinews upon you, and will clothe you with flesh and will 
cover you with skin, and ye shall live.' 

"And I spoke to the dry bones, and as I spoke there was 
an earthquake, and the bones came together, bone to bone, 
heads and bodies, legs and arms. And sinews came upon 

155 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



them, and flesh clothed them and skin covered them; but 
there was no breath in them. And the Lord said, 'Son of 
man, speak now to the four winds, and say to the breath of 
the winds. Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe 
down upon these slain that they may live/ And I spoke as 
he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and 
they lived and stood upon their feet, a mighty army." 

The people said, '* Ezekiel, we see the picture, but what 
does it mean?'' 

And Ezekiel said, "It means you, friends. It means that 
though you are like men dead and buried here in the land of 
Babylon, yet shall the Lord raise you up, and restore you to 
your own land." 

Again Ezekiel said, "I dreamed that we were all back 
again in our own country, and there came a mighty army 
against us. The great king Gog, ruler of all the heathen na- 
tions of the world, came from the far north, all of them rid- 
ing on horses, all of them armed with sword and shield and 
buckler. On they came, as a storm of thunder rolls along the 
sky. And I saw the Lord fighting for us with an earthquake. 
All the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the sky, and the 
beasts of the field, and all men, trembled. And the moun- 
tains were torn apart, and all the high cliffs toppled over, 
and every wall fell to the ground. And the vast army of the 

156 



MOVING PICTURES 



invaders was defeated ; the fire of the Lord destroyed them. 
And we went out from our cities and gathered up their 
bucklers and their wooden shields, their pikes and their 
spears, their bows and arrows, and piled them up in our 
yards for firewood. And for seven years we never needed 
to cut down a tree to burn. And the land was free from all 
its foes forever. 

"I saw the Castle of Zion rebuilded, stronger than ever; 
and a new city, and a new Temple, splendid beyond all the 
splendor of Solomon, and in the midst of it the Lord God 
blessing the people of the Lord.' 



» 



XXXIV 

THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS 




EARS and years after, when Hebrew child- 
ren sat around the fire at night, and said, 
" Father, tell us what happened to our people 
when they lived in the land of Babylon," 
they were told some of the most wonderful 
stories in the world. 

It came to pass in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, king of 
Babylon and destroyer of Jerusalem, that the king had a 
strange dream, and his spirit was troubled and his sleep 
went from him. The king called the magicians, and they 
came in and stood before him. 

The king said to them, "I have dreamed a dream, and my 
spirit is troubled to know what it means." 

And the magicians answered, "O king, live for ever. Tell 
us the dream, and we will tell you what it means." 

But the king said, "I have forgotten the dream. It was a 
strange dream, and I awoke in a fright, but what it was I 
cannot say. That is why I called you. Tell me first the 
dream, and then the meaning." 

158 



'i^L 



THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS 

They said, "We will explain the dream, if you will only 
tell us what it was." 

Then the king of Babylon was angry. "I see," he said, 
"what you have in your minds. You are trying to gain time, 
and are planning to tell me lies. Come, now, without delay, 
tell me this moment what I dreamed and what it meant. 
If you do this, you shall be rewarded with gifts and great 
honors. If you do not do it, you shall be cut limb from 
limb." 

And the king beckoned to his executioner. 

Then the magicians cried out before the king. " There is 
no man on earth," they said, "who can show the king's 
matter. Never in the world did any king ask such a thing 
of any magician. What the king asks is too difficult ; the 
gods only can answer it." 

But the king was more angry and furious than before. 
" Go," he said to his executioner, " find out all the magicians 
in Babylon, and take off their heads." 

Now among the magicians was a man named Daniel. He 
was a Jew, and had been brought away out of the kingdom 
of Judah. He was the first man whom the executioner met 
when he went to execute the king's decree. Daniel said, 
"Wait, bring me before the king. I will tell him what he 
dreamed, and what it means." 

159 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



So Daniel came before the king. And the king said, "Are 
you able to make known to me the dream which I have 
seen, and the interpretation of it?" 

And Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and 
said, "You have asked a thing, O king, which no magician 
on the earth can answer. But there is a God in heaven who 
speaks in secret to the souls of men. He has spoken to you, 
O king, to tell you what shall come to pass hereafter, and 
He has spoken to me also. I know the strange dream which 
you dreamed, and I know its interpretation. 

"You saw, O king, a great and very bright image, stand- 
ing before you, terrible to look upon. The head of the image 
was of fine gold, its breast and arms were of silver, its body 
was of brass, its legs of iron, its feet part of iron and part 
of clay. And as you looked, there came a stone thrown by 
some unseen hand, which struck the image on its feet and 
broke them, and down fell the image; and the iron, the 
clay, the brass, the silver and the gold were broken into bits 
so small that a strong wind came and blew them all away, 
as the winds blow the chaff from the threshing-floor. Then 
the stone which struck the image grew and grew, and be- 
came a great mountain, and filled all the earth. 

" This was your dream, O king. Now listen, while I tell 
you what it means. 

i6o 



THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS 

"You are a king of kings. The God of heaven has given 
you power and strength and glory. Wherever men live 
upon the earth, and there are beasts in the field and birds 
in the sky, you are ruler of them all. You are that head of 
gold. But after you shall arise a kingdom inferior to you, 
and after that another and another, each worse than the 
one before, silver and brass and iron and clay. Then shall 
God set up a kingdom which shall destroy all these king- 
doms, but shall never be destroyed. This is that stone 
which smote the image, and became a mountain." 

Then the king said to Daniel, "Of a truth, your God is a 
God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets." 

And the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him 
many gifts, and appointed him master of the magicians. 

But after that, the king dreamed another dream, and he 
awoke greatly troubled. And none of the magicians could 
explain the dream, till Daniel came. 

"O Daniel," said the King, "I know that the spirit of the 
holy gods is in you, and that no secrets are hid from you; 
tell me now the meaning of my dream. 

" I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, a great 
tree, whose height reached to heaven, and it could be seen 
from all the ends of the earth. The leaves of it were fair, 
and its fruit abundant, and the beasts of the field lived 

i6i 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



under the shadow of it, and the fowls of the air dwelt in its 
branches. But as I dreamed, down came a holy one from 
heaven. He cried aloud, *Hew down the tree, cut off its 
branches, shake off its leaves, scatter its fruit, let the 
beasts and the fowls flee from it. Leave only the stump of 
its roots in the ground. Feed it with the grass of the field; 
wet it with the dew of heaven. Let seven times pass over 
it.' And a voice said, * The Most High ruleth in the kingdom 
of men, and giveth to whomsoever He will.' Then I awoke." 

Then Daniel, when he had heard the dream, was amazed 
and dumbfounded, and his thoughts troubled him. 

And the king said, "O Daniel, let not the dream or its 
interpretation trouble you. Tell me plainly what it means." 

And Daniel answered, "My lord, the dream be to those 
who hate you, and its interpretation to your enemies. 

"This great and strong tree is yourself, O king, whose 
dominion is to the ends of the earth. And as the holy one 
from heaven smote the tree, so shall you,0 king, be smitten. 
You shall be driven from the dwellings of men, and shall 
live in the fields with the beasts. You shall eat grass like 
oxen, and shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and so shall 
it be for seven years, until you know of a truth that the 
Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to 
whomsoever He will." 

162 



THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS 

A year after, as Nebuchadnezzar walked in his palace in 
Babylon, and looked out over the city, he said to himself, 
"Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by the might 
of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? " 

And as he spoke, a madness fell upon him. He was driven 
from men, and did eat grass like oxen, and his body was wet 
with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' 
feathers, and his nails like birds' claws. Thus he lived for 
seven years. 

Then one day his reason returned to him, and he stood 
upon his feet, and blessed God. <* For His dominion," he 
said, "is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom from 
generation to generation. His works are truth, and His 
ways judgment, and those who walk in pride He is able to 
abase." 




XXXV 

THE FIERY FURNACE 

NCE upon a time, when Nebuchadnezzar 
was king in Babylon and the Jews were 
there in exile, the king set up an image of 
gold, a hundred feet high, in the plain of 
Dura. And to the dedication of this image, 
he called all the great men of the kingdom, — the princes, 
the governors, and the captains; the judges, the treasurers, 
the counsellors, the sheriffs; and all the rulers of the 
provinces. 

So they came, and a multitude of people with them, and 
stood before the golden image. And a herald cried aloud, 
and said, "To you it is commanded,© people, nations, and 
languages, that at what time ye hear the sound of music, 
— the cornet, flute, harp, psaltery, dulcimer, and other 
instruments, — ye fall down and worship the golden image 
which Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. And whosoever 
falls not down and worships shall the same hour be cast 
into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace." 
Then the music sounded, the band played, and down fell 

164 



THE FIERY FURNACE 



the people. All the princes, all the governors, all the cap- 
tains, all the judges, the treasurers, and the sheriffs, and 
all the rulers of the provinces worshipped the golden 
image. 

Then came certain men and made a complaint before the 
king. "O king," they said, "you made a decree that when 
the band played in the plain of Dura, everybody should fall 
down before the golden image, or else be cast into the midst 
of a burning, fiery furnace. But, O king, there are three 
Jews, one named Shadrach, another named Meshach, and 
the third named Abed-nego, who have paid no heed to your 
command. They serve not your gods, nor worship the 
golden image which you have set up." 

Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and fury commanded that 
these Jews should be brought before him; and Shadrach, 
Meshach, and Abed-nego were brought before the king. 

The king said, "Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and 
Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods, nor worship 
the golden image which I have set up ? Now if you are ready 
to fall down when the band plays, and worship the golden 
image in the plain of Dura, well. But if not, then you shall 
be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning, fiery 
furnace. And who is the God who can deliver you out of 
my hands?" 

165 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered and said 
to Nebuchadnezzar, "O king, we are in no doubt as to our 
answer in this matter. If you put us into the hottest furnace 
in your land, the Lord our God will surely deliver us out of 
it. And in any case, we give you notice that we will not 
serve your gods, O king, nor will we worship the golden 
image which you have set up." 

Then was Nebuchadnezzar filled with fury, and his face 
was as the face of a man in great anger. He gave command 
to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it had ever 
been heated. He charged strong men to bind Shadrach, 
Meshach, and Abed-nego, that they might be cast into the 
burning, fiery furnace. So they were bound in their coats, 
their stockings, and their hats, and their other garments, 
and were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. 
And the fire was so hot that the men who threw them in were 
burned in the flames which came from the furnace door. 
And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego fell down bound 
into the midst of the fiery, burning furnace. 

But the king arose in great astonishment, and looked 
into the furnace. He said to his counsellors, "Did we not 
cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" 

They answered, "True, O king." 

He said, "Lo, I see four men unbound walking in the 

1 66 



THE FIERY FURNACE 



midst of the fire, and they have no hurt! And the form of 
the fourth is like to a son of the gods!" 

And the king came near to the door of the burning, fiery- 
furnace. "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego," he said, 
*'ye servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come 
hither." 

And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego came forth out 
of the midst of the fire. And the princes, the governors, and 
the captains, and all the king's counsellors crowding to- 
gether to that sight, saw these men upon whose bodies the 
fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed, nor 
were their coats changed ; nor even the smell of fire had come 
upon them. 

And Nebuchadnezzar said, "Blessed be the Lord God 
of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who has sent His 
angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him. There 
is no other god who is able to deliver as this one." 

Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed- 
nego in the province of Babylon. 



XXXVI 




BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST 

HERE was a feast, that night, in the king's 
palace, in Babylon, a feast for a thousand 
nobles. And King Belshazzar, Nebuchad- 
nezzar's son, had given command to bring 
to the table the gold and silver vessels which 
his father had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. And 
out of the gold and silver cups of the Lord's House, the king 
and his thousand nobles, and all the ladies of the court, 
drank wine. They drank wine, and praised the gods of 
Babylon, made of gold, of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, 
and of stone. 

But in the midst of the feast, as the lights blazed, and the 
music sounded, and the people ate, drank, and were merry, 
suddenly along the white wall of the king's palace, by the 
golden candlestick, moved the figure of a man's hand, and 
wrote. There was the writing, plain and black on the white 
wall. But it was in a strange language. Nobody could read 
it. 
Mene, Tekel. Peres. Thus stood the mysterious inscrip- 

i68 



BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST 



tion. And at the sight of it the music stopped, the nobles 
and the ladies sat in frightened silence, and the king trembled 
so that his knees smote one against another. The king cried 
aloud for the magicians, and the wise men of Babylon were 
called. 

And the king said to the magicians, "Whoever shall read 
this writing and show me the interpretation of it shall be 
clothed in scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, 
and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom." 

But not a wise man of them all could read the writing, 
nor make known to the king the interpretation of it. 

Then was King Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his face 
was as the face of a man in fear and distress, and all his 
nobles were amazed and perplexed. Nobody knew what to 
do. 

At last the queen spoke. And the queen said, "O king, 
do not be troubled. There is a man in your kingdom in 
whom is the spirit of the holy gods. Your father found in 
him such light and understanding and wisdom of the gods, 
that he made him master of the magicians. He could inter- 
pret dreams, and read riddles, and dissolve doubts. Let 
Daniel be called, and he will show the meaning of the writ- 
ing." 

Then was Daniel brought in before the king. 

169 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



And the king said, "Are you that Daniel, whom my father 
brought from Judah, and made master of the magicians? I 
hear that the spirit of the gods is in you, and great wisdom. 
Now, the wise men have been brought in before me to read 
this writing and show me what it means, and they cannot 
do it. But you can make interpretations and dissolve doubts. 
If you can read these words and explain them, you shall be 
clothed in scarlet, and have a chain of gold about your 
neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom." 

Then Daniel answered and said before the king, " O king, 
keep your gifts, and give your rewards to another. Yet I will 
read the writing, and make known the interpretation of it. 
O thou king, the Most High God gave your father the king- 
dom, and majesty, and glory and honor, and all nations 
trembled before him. Whom he would, he slew; and whom 
he would, he kept alive. But when his heart was lifted up 
with pride, God put him down from his kingly throne, and 
they took his glory from him. He was driven from the 
dwellings of men. They fed him with grass like oxen, and 
his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he learned 
that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and 
giveth it to whomsoever He will. 

" But you, his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled your 
heart, though you know all this. You have exalted yourself 

170 



BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST 



against the Lord of Heaven. The vessels of the Lord's 
House have been brought before you, and you and your 
nobles and the ladies of your court have drunk wine from 
them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of 
brass, iron, wood, and stone. And the God in whose hand 
your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not 
glorified. 

"Therefore was the hand sent, and these words were 
written. And this is what they mean. 

''Meney numbered. God has numbered your kingdom 
and finished it. 

''Tekely weighed. You are weighed in the balance and 
found wanting. 

''Peres, divided. Your kingdom is divided, and given to 
the Medes and Persians." 

Then Belshazzar gave command, and they clothed Daniel 
in scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made 
a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third 
ruler in the kingdom. 

That night, the Medes and Persians came. Babylon was 
taken; Belshazzar was slain; and Darius reigned in his 
stead. 



XXXVII 




THE DEN OF LIONS 

HE princes disliked the presidents. There 
were a hundred and twenty princes, and 
three presidents. The business of the 
princes was to govern the kingdom of Baby- 
lon; but the princes were governed by the 
presidents, and the presidents by the king. The princes 
turned in their accounts to the presidents. If they did well, 
the presidents praised them; if they did ill, the presidents 
blamed them, and told them that if they did not do better 
they would report them to the king. The princes did not 
like it. 

The first of these presidents was Daniel. He was pre- 
ferred above all the princes and the presidents because an 
excellent spirit was in him; and the king trusted him. But 
the princes and the other presidents sought to find some fault 
in him, that they might accuse him to the king, and bring 
him down from his high place. 

They looked here and they looked there to find a good 
complaint against the president, but they could discover 
nothing. Daniel was faithful in all things, and there was 

172 



THE DEN OF LIONS 



no error in him. At last they said, " We shall not find any 
occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him 
concerning the law of his God." 

Then they came to King Darius, and said, *'0 king, all 
the presidents of the kingdom, the governors and the princes, 
the counsellors and the captains, have consulted together 
to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree, that 
whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty 
days, save of you, O king, shall be cast into a den of lions. 
Here is the law which we have written. All that is now 
needed is the signing of your name." 

It seemed to the king a good law; he found no harm in it. 
So he signed it. 

Now when Daniel knew that the law was signed, and 
that all prayers for thirty days must be made to the king 
only, and that any disobedience would be punished by the 
lions, nevertheless he prayed to God according to his daily 
custom. He paid no attention to the law. He went into his 
house, and having his windows open towards Jerusalem, 
he kneeled upon his knees and said his prayers and gave 
thanks before his God, as he had done before. This was 
what the presidents and the princes were sure would happen. 
They looked in at the open windows, and there was Daniel 
praying. 

173 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



So they hastened to the king. "O king," they said, "did 
you not sign a decree that every man who should ask a 
petition of any god or man, save yourself, within thirty 
days, should be cast into the den of lions?" 

The king answered and said, " The thing is true, and the 
law of the Medes and Persians cannot be changed." 

Then they cried aloud, and said, " That Daniel, who was 
brought as a captive out of Judah, regards you not, O king, 
neither does he give heed to the decree which you have 
signed, but three times every day he makes his petitions to 
his God." 

And the king saw that the princes had deceived him. He 
saw that they had laid a plot against Daniel. And all that 
day, till the going down of the sun, he labored to deliver 
him. 

But as the sun was setting, the crowd of princes came into 
the king's presence; and they said, " You know, O king, 
the customs of the Medes and Persians. No law which the 
king has signed can be changed, even by the king." 

So the king gave command, and they brought Daniel 
to cast him into the den of lions. But the king spoke and 
said to Daniel, "Your God, whom you serve continually, 
will deliver you." 

Then Daniel was cast in among the hungry lions, and a 

174 



THE DEN OF LIONS 



stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den, and 
the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet 
of his nobles. One end of a cord was fastened with wax on one 
side of the stone, and the other end was fastened with wax 
on the other side of the stone, and the king and his nobles 
pressed the seals of their rings into the wax. Thus nobody 
could stir the stone without breaking the seals; that the 
purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. 

Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night 
fasting ; neither did he sleep. And very early in the morning, 
he went in great haste to the den. There was the stone, and 
the sealed cord, and the lions could be heard roaring within. 

And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable 
voice to Daniel. And the king said, *' O Daniel, servant of 
the living God, is your God whom you serve continually 
able to deliver you from the lions ?'* 

And Daniel answered, '*0 king, live forever. My God 
has sent his angel and has shut the lions' mouths that they 
have not hurt me, because I am innocent before Him, and 
I am innocent also before you, O king." 

Then was the king exceedingly glad for him, and com- 
manded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. 
So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of 
hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God. 

175 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



And the king commanded, and they brought the princes 
and the presidents who had accused Daniel, and they cast 
them into the den of lions, and the lions ate them up and 
broke their bones in pieces before they reached the bottom 
of the den. And the king said, "The God of Daniel, he is 
the living God, and steadfast forever; who hath delivered 
Daniel from the power of the lions." 

" But, father," said the Hebrew children, when they had 
heard these stories, "did these wonders really happen? Did 
Nebuchadnezzar eat grass like an ox? Did the hand write 
on the wall of the palace of Belshazzar ? Did the Lord deliver 
His servants from the fiery furnace, and from the den of 
lions?" 

And the father said, "Children, I was not there, and my 
grandfather, who told me the stories which I tell you, was not 
there either. But this was true then, and is true to-day, that 
the Lord humbles the proud, and brings down the mighty 
from the seats, and saves those who trust in Him out of all 
their troubles/* 



XXXVIII 




THE HANGING OF HAMAN 

HASUERUS the king made a feast for all 
his princes and his nobles. The room was 
hung with fair cloths of white and green and 
blue, fastened with purple cords to silver 
rings in pillars of marble. All the couches 
on which they lay to eat and drink, according to their cus- 
tom, were gold and silver. And the cups which held the 
wine were of fine gold. 

Also Vashti the queen made a feast at the same time for 
all the ladies of the court. 

Now when the heart of the king was merry with wine, so 
that he did not well know what he was about, he sent for the 
queen to come to the table with the men. But the queen 
refused to come. 

And the king was very angry. He called for his wise men 
and said, " What shall be done to the queen who refuses to 
obey the king?" 

And the chief of the wise men answered, " O king, the 
queen has put us all in danger. If her disobedience is not 

177 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



punished, then all our wives, and all the wives in your 
dominions, will disobey their husbands. But punish her 
by putting her away, and all the wives will give to their 
husbands honor, both to great and small." 

And the saying pleased the king, and he did according 
to the counsel of the wise man. 

Then the king appointed officers in all the provinces of his 
kingdom to gather together in his palace all the most beauti- 
ful maidens of the land, that he might choose another queen. 

Now there was in the king's city a Jew named Mordecai, 
who had been carried away captive from Jerusalem in the 
days of Nebuchadnezzar. He had an adopted daughter 
whose name was Esther; and Esther was very beautiful, 
and as good as she was fair. She came among the many 
maidens to the palace of the king, and out of them all the 
king chose her to be his queen. But Esther did not tell the 
king that she was the daughter of Mordecai the Jew, for 
Mordecai had charged her not to make it known. 

So Esther was the queen of all the land, and the king set 
the royal crown upon her head. 

One day, two of the king*s servants laid a plot to kill him, 
and they talked together of what they meant to do, and 
Mordecai heard them. He told it to Esther, and Esther told 
the king. So the king's life was saved. 

178 



THE HANGING OF HAMAN 

Now the chief man in the city was named Haman. He 
was a proud person, and when he came in sight all the people 
fell down before him and touched the ground with their 
foreheads. But Mordecai stood still. He did not bow 
down nor prostrate himself. And Haman was very angry. 
He hated Mordecai. And when he found that Mordecai 
was a Jew, "Now," he said, " I will be avenged not only on 
Mordecai but on all his people." 

And Haman spoke to the king. "There is a certain 
people," he said, "scattered abroad in all the provinces of 
your kingdom, who are different from us. Their language 
is not our language, their customs are not our customs, and 
their laws are not our laws. If it please the king, let it be 
written that they be destroyed. I will myself pay ten thou- 
sand talents of silver to have it done." 

And the king took his ring from off his finger, and gave 
it to Haman, as a token of authority, and said, "Do as 
you please." 

So Haman made preparations to have the Jews destroyed. 
Letters were sent by runners into all the king's provinces, 
sajdng that on a certain day, the thirteenth day of the 
twelfth month, all Jews, old and young, even to the little 
children, should be put to death. 

Now when Mordecai knew what was done, he put on 

179 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



sackcloth and strewed ashes on his head, and went out into 
the midst of the city and cried with a loud and bitter cry. 
And in every province there was great mourning among the 
Jews, and fasting and weeping and wailing, and many lay in 
sackcloth and ashes. And the tidings came to Esther, and 
she sent a servant to Mordecai to find out what it meant. 
And Mordecai told him of the decree against the Jews, and 
sent word to Esther to beg the king to spare her people. 

Then Esther put on her royal apparel and stood in the 
door of the hall where the king sat on his throne. And the 
king held out toward Esther the golden sceptre which was in 
his hand. That was the sign that she might come near. So 
she came near, and touched the top of the sceptre. 

The king said, "What will you have, Queen Esther? 
What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the 
half of my kingdom." 

And Esther said, "If it please the king, let the king and 
Haman come to-day to a banquet which I have prepared." 

So they came, the king and Haman. And Haman was 
more proud than ever, being thus invited to dine with the 
king and queen. 

And at the banquet, the king said again, "Esther, what is 
your petition? What is your request?" 

And Esther said, " If I have found favor in the sight of the 

1 80 



THE HANGING OF HAMAN 

king, and if it please the king to grant my petition and to 
perform my request, let the king and Haman dine with me 
again to-morrow, and I will do as the king has said." 

Then Haman went forth joyful and glad of heart. It was 
plain that he was the greatest man in all the king's domin- 
ions. He was more proud than ever. And the people bowed 
down before him till their foreheads touched the ground. 
But Mordecai stood still. He made no bow. And Haman 
went home and told his wife. *T am promoted," he said, 
"above all the princes of the king. The queen has asked no 
man but me to dine together with the king. Yet I cannot be 
satisfied, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew giving me no 
reverence. What shall I do?" 

His wife said, " The thing to do is to have a gallows 
erected, seventy-five feet high, and to-morrow ask the king 
for leave to have Mordecai hanged on it." 

That seemed good to Haman, and he caused the gallows 
to be erected, and he went in merrily with the king to the 
queen's banquet. 

Now, the night before, the king had not been able to 
sleep, and he gave orders to have brought to him the book 
of the records of the events of his reign; and one read to him 
out of the book. And there it was written how, one time, 
Mordecai had saved his life from two assassins. 

i8i 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



The king said, **What honor and dignity have been 
bestowed on Mordecai for this?" 

The reader said, "Nothing has been done for him." 

Then Haman came to ask the king for permission to hang 
Mordecai. And the king's servants said to him, "Haman is 
standing in the court." The king said, "Let him come in." 
So Haman came in. 

And the king said, "Haman, what shall be done to the 
man whom the king delights to honor?" 

And Haman said to himself, " To whom would the king 
delight to do honor more than to myself? " So he said, " For 
the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal apparel 
be brought, such as the king wears, and the horse on which 
the king rides, and the crown royal which is set upon his 
head ; and let the apparel and the horse be delivered into the 
hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that he may 
array the man whom the king delights to honor; and bring 
him on horseback through the streets of the city, and pro- 
claim before him, « Thus shall it be done unto the man whom 
the king delights to honor.'" 

Then the king said to Haman, "Make haste, and take the 
apparel and the horse, as you have said, and do even so to 
Mordecai the Jew!" 

And Haman did so. Mordecai was brought on horseback 

182 



THE HANGING OF HAMAN 

through the streets of the city, and proclamation was made 
before him, '' Thus shall it be done to the man whom the 
king delights to honor." 

But Haman's heart was filled with bitterness and dread. 
Still, he went to the queen's banquet. And the king said to 
the queen, "What is your petition. Queen Esther, and what 
is your request ? It shall be performed, even to the half of 
my kingdom." 

And Esther said, "O king, give me my life, and the lives 
of my people. We are sold, I and my people, to be slain and 
to perish!" 

"Who is he," said the king, "and where is he, that durst 
presume in his heart to do so?" 

And Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this 
wicked Haman!" 

Then they took Haman. And one of the king's officers 
said, "There is a gallows seventy-five feet high which Ha- 
man made for Mordecai who saved your life. There it 
stands beside the house of Haman." 

The king said, "Hang him on it." 

So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had 
prepared for Mordecai. And the Jews were delivered. 




XXXIX 

THE CASTLE WALL 

OU are not sick, Nehemiah," said the king 
to his cupbearer. "Why do you look so 
sad?" 

And Nehemiah answered, " O king, why 
should I not be sad when the city where my 
fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates are destroyed 
by fire?" 
The king said, *^Have you a request to make of me?" 
Then Nehemiah prayed silently to God, and said to the 
king, "If it please the king, and if your servant has found 
favor in your eyes, send me to Judah, to the Castle of Zion, 
to the city where my fathers are buried, that I may rebuild 
the walls." 

"How long will your journey be?" said the king. "And 

when will you return?" 

And Nehemiah set a time, and the king let him go. 

And Nehemiah said, "If it please the king, let me have 

letters to the governors beyond the river, that they may 

let me pass through to Judah; and tell the keeper of the 

184 



THE CASTLE WALL 



royal forest to give me timber to make beams for the gates 
of the castle, and for houses." 

This also the king did, and the king sent a bodyguard of 
horsemen with him. 

Now the king who thus befriended Nehemiah and the 
Jews was king of Persia. As the Assyrians had been con- 
quered by the Chaldeans, and their capital Nineveh had 
been destroyed, so the Chaldeans in their turn had been 
conquered by the Persians, who had destroyed their capi- 
tal city, Babylon. Great Babylon had fallen, and the long 
captivity of the Jews was over. They had been permitted to 
return, and a long procession, bearing the gold and silver 
vessels of the Temple, had gone back over the road along 
which their fathers had been taken into exile. But the times 
were bad, and the work was hard, and for some years they 
attended only to the building of their own houses. The 
Temple lay in ruins. Then two good men, Haggai and 
Zachariah, urged the people till they erected a new temple. 
But the city had no walls or gates. 

So Nehemiah came to Jerusalem; and for three days he 
looked about him, as if he were a visitor. He told nobody 
that the king of Persia had made him governor of the land. 

On the night of the third day, in the light of the shining 
moon, he took a few men with him, and rode out of the 

185 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



Valley Gates to view the walls. He went as far as the Drag- 
on's Well, looking at the ruins. There broken stones were 
piled so high that his horse could go no farther, but he went 
on foot. Then he turned back, and entered again into the 
city; and none of the rulers knew where he had been, or 
what he did. 

The next day, he called an assembly of the people. ''You 
see," he said, " the distress in which we are, how the walls 
of the Castle of Zion are in ruins, and the gates are burned 
with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall." And Nehemiah 
told them how God had cared for him, and how the king 
had given his permission. 

And the people said, **Let us rise up and build!" 

But there were certain men in Jerusalem, headed by 
Sanballat and Tobiah, who were much displeased that 
Nehemiah should have come to take the lead of them. They 
were such men as had opposed Haggai and Zachariah in their 
efforts to rebuild the Temple. They desired to be let alone. 
They wished to improve their own fortunes, and to live 
their own selfish lives. And they opposed Nehemiah. At 
first, they laughed at him. Then they accused him of in- 
tending to rebel against the king. 

Most of the people, however, were on Nehemiah's side. 
The priests rebuilded the Sheep Gate. The goldsmiths and 

1 86 



THE CASTLE WALL 



the merchants undertook to do their share. Men came to 
work from all the villages around the city. Others set about 
repairing the parts of the wall which were near their own 
houses. 

Meanwhile, Sanballat was stirring up enemies among the 
Samaritans and the Ammonites. ''What are these feeble 
Jews doing?" he cried. "Will they take up the stones out 
of the heaps of rubbish which are burned?" 

And Tobiah said, "Look at the wall which they are 
building! If a fox should jump upon it, he would break it 
down." 

And they came to fight against Jerusalem, to stop the 
progress of the work. 

But Nehemiah armed the people with swords and spears 
and bows. "Be not afraid of them," he said. "Remember 
the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your sons 
and daughters, and your wives, and your houses." So half 
of the men labored in the work, and the other half stood 
guard with their weapons. And the builders and the bur- 
den-bearers had every man his sword girded by his side. 
And beside Nehemiah was a man with a trumpet. 

And Nehemiah said to the nobles and the rulers and the 
rest of the people, " The work is great and large, and we are 
separated on the wall, one far from another. When you 

187 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



hear the sound of the trumpet, leave your work and come 
together to me." So they labored day and night, and Ne- 
hemiah and his bodyguard kept watch, and when they 
slept, they slept in their clothes, with their spears beside 
them. 

And there were other troubles. The stones were heavy, 
and the rubbish heaps were great, and the men grew very 
tired. Moreover, their own work in the fields had to be 
neglected. They could neither plant nor reap. Thus their 
farms gave them no food. But there were selfish neighbors 
who sold them food at such high prices that they had to 
mortgage their land and their houses, and even to sell their 
sons and daughters into slavery, in order to buy it and 
live. Thus as the farmers and the poorer people grew 
poorer, the nobles grew richer. 

Then Nehemiah was very angry. "I and my friends," 
he said, "have been taking our own money to redeem our 
countrymen who have been sold in slavery to the heathen; 
and you are making money by selling them. I and my 
friends have been lending them money and grain; and you 
are taking away their lands and houses. Come, now, stop 
this injustice. Give them back their fields and vineyards, 
and their sons and daughters." 

They said, "We will restore them; we will require no- 

i88 



THE CASTLE WALL 



thing of them. We will do just as you say." So that evil 
was ended. 

Then Sanballat and Tobiah laid a plot. They sent to 
Nehemiah and said, "Come, let us meet together in one of 
the villages, and hold a conference." But they meant to 
take him prisoner. 

Nehemiah answered, "I am doing a great work, so that 
I cannot come down." 

Then they bribed a prophet who came to Nehemiah and 
said, "Men are coming to-night to kill you. Go now into 
the Temple and shut the door against them." 

Nehemiah said, "Should such a man as I flee?" And he 
would not do it. 

Thus at last, in the face of all opposition, the walls of the 
Castle of Zion were rebuilt. Strong they stood against all 
enemies, and watchmen guarded the gates. So Nehemiah 
finished the noble work which he had come to do, and re- 
turned to Persia to the king, his master. 



XL 




THE ADVENTURES OF JONAH 

HE Jews had been held in subjection by the 
Assyrians first ; then by the Chaldeans, then 
by the Persians. After these conquerors 
came the Greeks. All these strong, oppress- 
ive nations they called Gentiles; and they 
hated the Gentiles. They felt that nothing was too bad for 
them. They prayed that the wrath of God might fall upon 
them. They hoped that they would be punished both in 
this world and in the world to come. 

There were some Jews, however, who believed that God 
is the Father of all the people of the world, and that all the 
Gentiles are His children. One of them wrote a story about 
Jonah. 

Once upon a time there was a man named Jonah. He 
lived so long ago that in his day old Nineveh, the capital of 
the Assyrians, was standing in its pride. The word of the 
Lord came to Jonah, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, the 
capital of the Assyrians, that great city, and cry against it ; 
for their wickedness is come up before Me." 

190 



THE ADVENTURES OF JONAH 

But Jonah would not do it. He knew that God was 
gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. 
And he said to himself, " If I obey this word, and go to Nine- 
veh, and preach as the Lord bids me, this is what will hap- 
pen. The people will repent, and God will forgive them, and 
bless them. Far be it from me to be the means of bringing 
a blessing on those accursed Gentiles of Nine veh ! '' 

So Jonah rose up, and started to go in exactly the oppo- 
site direction. The Lord told him to go east, and he went 
west. The Lord sent him across the plains to Nineveh, 
but he found a ship at Joppa, on the Mediterranean Sea, 
and took his passage for Tarshish, on the coast of Spain. 
He paid his fare, and went on board the ship; the sails were 
spread, and off they went. And Jonah thought that he 
had escaped from God. 

But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there 
was a mighty tempest, so that the ship was like to be broken. 
And the sailors were afraid, and cried every man to his god ; 
and the goods which they were carrying, they cast into the 
sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah was fast asleep. 

At last, when the wreck of the ship seemed certain, the 
captain went down and awakened Jonah. "Sleeper," he 
said, *'do you not hear the roaring of the storm. Get up, 
and call upon your God, for we are like to perish." 

191 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



So Jonah awoke, and the ship was swinging like a swing, 
up to the heaven and down again to the depths, and the 
sailors were reeling to and fro, and staggering like drunken 
men, and were at their wits' end. 

"Come," they cried, "let us cast lots that we know for 
whose cause this evil is upon us." 

And when the lots were cast, the lot fell on Jonah. 

The sailors said, "What is your business? Where do 
you come from? What is your country? What have you 
done?" 

And Jonah confessed that he was trying to escape from 
the Lord his God. 

Then the sailors were exceedingly afraid . The wind howled 
about them, and the sky was black above them, and the 
waves roared against the ship. 

" Why have you done this thing? " they cried. " What 
shall we do? " 

Jonah said, " The thing to do is to take me up, and cast 
me forth into the sea ; then shall the waves be still, for I 
know that this storm is for my sake." 

Nevertheless, the good Gentiles of the crew did what they 
could to save the life of the bad prophet. They rowed hard 
to bring the boat to land, but they could not, for the wind 
blew against them. At last, they prayed to the God of Jonah 

192 



THE ADVENTURES OF JONAH 

to be good to them, and they took up Jonah, and cast him 
forth into the sea. And the waves ceased from roaring. 

As for Jonah, a great fish swallowed him, and then threw 
him up on the dry land. So he went home. 

Then the word of the Lord came a second time to Jonah, 
and he obeyed. The Lord said, "Arise, go unto Nineveh, 
that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I 
bid thee." And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh. 

And Jonah cried in all the streets of Nineveh, and in the 
market squares and wheresoever there were people gathered 
together; and he said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall 
be overthrown!" 

And the people of Nineveh barkened to the voice of 
Jonah. The king and his nobles made a proclamation, and 
the heralds who proclaimed it went through all the streets 
where Jonah had gone preaching, and they cried, " Thus 
saith the king, ' Let no man or beast in Nineveh taste food 
or drink water, but let all cry mightily to God, and let 
them turn every one from his evil way.'" 

So the whole city prayed and fasted, and all the sinners 
put away their sins. Before the forty days were over, the 
bad city had become good. And God was pleased. 

In the mean time, Jonah had gone out of the city, and 
had built himself a little hut on the east side, where he 

193 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



might sit in the shade, and see what would become of Nine- 
veh. And he counted the slow days, — one, and two, and 
three, and ten, and twenty, and thirty, and thirty-eight, 
and then thirty-nine, and at last forty. As the sun rose on 
the morning of the fortieth day, Jonah stood in the door 
of his hut, and looked eagerly into the sky for clouds. But 
the sky was clear and blue. And Jonah prayed. He prayed 
for thunder and lightning; he prayed for an earthquake or a 
whirlwind : anything to destroy the city! But the sun shone 
over Jonah's head at noon, and sank quietly into the west 
at night, and nothing happened. All the stars came out, 
and the fortieth day was ended, and there was Nineveh 
sound and safe. And Jonah perceived that Nineveh was not 
to be overthrown. 

And it displeased Jonah greatly, and he was very angry. 
He reproved God. " O Lord," he said, " this is what I told 
you before I came. This is why I fled to Tarshish. I knew 
that those miserable Gentiles would repent, and that if they 
repented you would forgive them. I have been the means 
of bringing a blessing on people whom I hate! O Lord, take 
my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to 
live." 

Now, over Jonah's hut had grown a gourd, and it made 
a pleasant shade over his head, but in the morning a worm 

194 



THE ADVENTURES OF JONAH 

attacked it, and it withered. And the sun beat upon the head 
of Jonah, and the east wind blew hot upon him. 

And again Jonah wished that he was dead. "It is better 
for me to die," he said, "than to live." 

The Lord said, "Doest thou well to be angry on account 
of the gourd?" 

And Jonah answered, "I do well to be angry, even unto 
death." 

Then said the Lord, "You care for the gourd, which you 
did not plant, neither did you make it grow, which came 
up in a night and perished in a night. Do you not see that 
I must care for Nineveh, that great city, wherein are thou- 
sands of people so ignorant that they do not know their 
right hand from their left, and also much cattle?" 



XLI 



THE PATIENCE OF JOB 




O the Castle of Zion was held by one great 
master after another; after the Assyrians, 
the Chaldeans; after the Chaldeans, the 
Persians; after the Persians, the Greeks. 
When at last the king came, the King of 
Kings, He found the castle in the possession of the Romans. 
The Jews lived there still, but the Gentiles governed them 
and oppressed them. 

And this was in spite of the fact that they were really 
trying to be good. They could not understand it. They 
said, "Our fathers did wickedly, and were punished: they 
were carried into exile. What have we done?" Then some- 
body wrote a story about Job. 

Once upon a time there was a man named Job ; and he was 
a perfect and upright man, who feared God and did no evil. 

He had seven sons and three daughters, and seven thou- 
sand sheep and three thousand camels, and a very great 
household, so that he was the greatest of all the men of the 

196 



THE PATIENCE OF JOB 



East. Every morning Job rose up early and prayed for him- 
self, and for his sons and daughters. This he did continually. 

Now there was a day when the angels came to present 
themselves before the Lord, and Satan came among the 
angels. 

And the Lord said to Satan, "Where have you been?" 

And Satan answered, "I have been going to and fro in 
the earth, and walking up and down in it." 

The Lord said, "Have you considered my servant Job, 
that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an 
upright man, who fears God and does no evil?" 

And Satan answered, "Does Job fear God for nought? 
You have blessed the work of his hands, and his wealth 
increases every day. Take away this, and he will curse you 
to your face." 

And the Lord said, "All that he has is in your power; 
only upon himself put not forth your hand." 

And the next day there came a messenger to Job and 
said, "The oxen were ploughing and the asses feeding beside 
them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away ; 
and they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, 
and I only am escaped alone to tell you." 

And while he was speaking, there came also another, and 
said, "The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and has burned 

197 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and 
I only am escaped alone to tell you." 

While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, 
"The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the 
camels, and have carried them away, and slain the servants 
with the edge of the sword ; and I only am escaped alone to 
tell you." 

While he was yet speaking there came also another and 
said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking 
in their eldest brother's house; and behold, there came a 
great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners 
of the house, and it fell upon the young men and they were 
dead ; and I only am escaped alone to tell you." 

Then Job arose, and laid hold upon his clothes and tore 
them in distress, and he fell upon the ground and worshipped 
God. " The Lord gave," he said, "and the Lord hath taken 
away: blessed be the name of the Lord." 

Again there was a day when the angels came to present 
themselves before the Lord, and Satan came among the 
angels. 

And the Lord said to Satan, "Where have you been?" 

And Satan answered, "I have been going to and fro in the 
earth, and walking up and down upon it." 

The Lord said, "Have you considered my servant Job, 

198 



THE PATIENCE OF JOB 



that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an 
upright man, who fears God and does no evil? And still 
he holds fast his goodness, though you moved Me against 
him to destroy him without a cause." 

And Satan answered the Lord and said, " Skin for skin, 
all that a man has will he give for his life. But put forth 
your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he 
will curse you to your face." 

And the Lord said to Satan, "He is in your hand; but 
save his life." 

And the next day. Job was smitten with sore boils from 
the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a 
potsherd to scrape himself, and sat down among the ashes. 
"Shall we receive good at the hand of God," he said, "and 
shall we not receive evil?" 

Now there were three friends of Job who heard that he 
was sick and came to see him. They came to mourn with 
him, and to comfort him. And they sat down with him on 
the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke 
a word to him; for they saw that his grief was very great. 

At last Job Ufted up his voice, and lamented the day when 
he was born, and his friends, one after another, answered 
him. They all said, "Job, what sin have you committed, 
what dreadful evil have you done, that all this loss and pain 

199 



THE CASTLE OF ZION 



has come upon you?" For they believed that all trouble is 
a punishment of God for the wickedness of men. 

But Job declared that he had done nothing; he had 
served God and lived uprightly. 

His friends would not believe it. "Come, Job," they 
said, *'make a confession and repent, and God will forgive 
you and restore your goods and your health." 

And Job said, '* I know not why this distress has overtaken 
me. I know not why God has permitted me to be afflicted. 
But this I say: Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him." 

At last, came a mighty whirlwind, and out of the midst 
of it God spoke. He rebuked Job's friends. "Life," he said, 
"is filled with mystery. Man is ignorant, and only God is 
wise. The plans of God are beyond man's understanding. 
Pain and grief come, sometimes upon the sinful, sometimes 
upon the innocent: God alone knows why." And God 
blessed Job, because in his poverty and suffering he had 
kept his faith in Him. 

And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before, 
fourteen thousand sheep and six thousand camels ; and again 
he had seven sons and three daughters. So he lived a long 
life, full of peace and happiness, and died when he was old 
and full of days. 



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